{"id":2627884,"date":"2026-07-10T09:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/porn-will-keep-destroying-lives-until-we-honor-those-who-fight-it\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:14:15","slug":"porn-will-keep-destroying-lives-until-we-honor-those-who-fight-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/porn-will-keep-destroying-lives-until-we-honor-those-who-fight-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Porn Will Keep Destroying Lives Until We Honor Those Who Fight It"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fporn-will-keep-destroying-lives-until-we-honor-those-who-fight-it%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2627884&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the societal acceptance and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/he-hates-me-what-you-should-know-about-the-new-york-judge-assigned-to-trump-case\/\" title=\"He \u2018Hates Me\u2019: What You Should Know About The New York Judge Assigned To Trump Case\">legal challenges related<\/a> to pornography in the United States. Despite existing laws against obscenity, enforcement has waned due to First Amendment concerns, community standards, and resource limitations, reflecting a cultural shift where pornography is no longer seen as morally shameful. The failure of federal efforts, such as the 2005 Obscenity Prosecution task Force, highlights organizational flaws and the reluctance of legal professionals to prosecute obscenity, viewing it as dishonorable and offensive. This shift in societal value aligns with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/perkins-11-years-later-the-receipts-for-same-sex-marriage-are-in\/\" title=\"Perkins: 11 Years Later, the Receipts for Same...Sex Marriage Are In\">broader sexual revolution<\/a>, which frames sexual liberation as personal freedom, diminishing customary moral restraints like chastity and modesty.As a result, efforts to regulate obscenity have declined, reinforced by court decisions that emphasize individual privacy and free expression. However, the proliferation of internet pornography exposes its harmful effects, including addiction, distorted expectations, delayed family formation, and relational issues. Reversing this societal trend requires restoring honor in protecting moral standards and providing resources and support to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/op-ed-fair-or-foul-some-christians-off-base-in-dodgers-controversy\/\" title=\"Op...Ed: Christians Misguided in Dodgers Controversy\">enforce obscenity laws<\/a>. Leaders and legal professionals are called to see the defense of a decent sexual order as a honorable pursuit and to take decisive action against major platforms that promote pornography, with the goal of strengthening family and community well-being.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The final victory of pornography in the United States lies not in the ubiquity of hardcore porn on every phone but rather the extent to which society tolerates it. We have laws against obscenity <a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/blog\/the-problem-of-online-porn-its-already-illegal-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">on the books<\/a> in every state and at the federal level. But prosecutors <a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/blog\/the-problem-of-online-porn-its-already-illegal-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">everywhere<\/a> find excuses not to bring obscenity charges.<\/p>\n<p>They cite First Amendment concerns. They worry about shifting community standards. They plead limited resources. It\u2019s always someone else\u2019s job to enforce the laws \u2014 feds wait for the states, states wait for the counties, counties for the cops.<\/p>\n<p>These excuses show that there is no longer honor in fighting porn, nor is there societal shame for producing pornography. This reallocation of honor and shame marks the sexual revolution\u2019s deepest success.<\/p>\n<p>Our new Heritage Foundation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/marriage-and-family\/report\/general-obscenity-still-illegal-postmortem-the-bush-obscenity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Backgrounder<\/a>, \u201cIs General Obscenity Still Illegal? A Postmortem on the Bush Obscenity Prosecution Task Force,\u201d reveals this cultural shift by investigating the last serious federal effort to prosecute pornographers. Launched in 2005, the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force (OPTF) under Director Brent Ward achieved convictions in every case it tried.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, as we show, the OPTF effort was doomed from the start. Ward\u2019s 2007 resignation memorandum to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, published for the first time with the Backgrounder, reveals an operation \u201ccalibrated so as to render obscenity enforcement only minimally effective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Organizational flaws abounded: chronic under-resourcing, FBI content guidelines that created a safe harbor for most pornography, too few investigators, a strange geographic separation between investigators and prosecutors, and a Task Force that depended on voluntary participation from U.S. Attorneys who often declined cases or dragged their feet.<\/p>\n<p>As Ward explained when we interviewed him, lawyers and agents recoiled from the work of prosecuting obscenity. \u201cThe material is just so offensive that people do not want to deal with it,\u201d he noted. They did not want to immerse themselves in it, present it to juries, or risk being seen as prudish scolds by condemning it in elite legal circles. Judges did not want clerks to watch the videos. No one wanted to wear what Ward called \u201cthe Scarlet A of Anti-Free Speech.\u201d Fighting obscenity brought little professional honor and carried great reputational risk. Defending public morality against pornography had become dishonorable.<\/p>\n<p>This inversion of honor is the sexual revolution\u2019s lasting triumph. By framing sexual liberation as synonymous with personal freedom and progress, the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >revolution recast traditional moral restraints \u2014 chastity<\/a>, fidelity, modesty \u2014 as old-fashioned and oppressive \u2014 even as a bit too Christian and Bible-thumpy. The unwillingness to regulate obscenity is a hallmark of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Life-Negative-World-Confronting-Anti-Christian\/dp\/0310155150\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">world hostile<\/a> to a public role for Christian belief.<\/p>\n<p>Once \u201crespectable\u201d people concluded that consenting adults could please themselves without interference, enforcing obscenity laws came to be seen as backward interference in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/600-google-employees-ask-company-to-end-vaccine-mandate\/\" title=\"600 Google Employees Ask Company to End Vaccine Mandate\">private choices<\/a>. Complaining about porn would be as bad as complaining about same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n<p>Supreme Court decisions like <em>Lawrence v. Texas<\/em> (2003) and the Court\u2019s hostility to early internet child-protection measures during the early 2000s reinforced the sense that government had no business policing private choices. And for any concerns that remained, techno-optimists assured us that filters and markets would suffice for those personally opposed to porn. Elite institutions embraced the new dispensation.<\/p>\n<p>Only a restoration of true honor will make obscenity regulation possible. The time for such a re-reversal is now.<\/p>\n<p>A shift away from indulgence to obscenity seems more achievable now than at any other time in this millennium. The modern culture of porn on demand has revealed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/internet-pornography-culture-mental-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">very problems<\/a> obscenity laws were designed to prevent. Porn <a href=\"https:\/\/firstthings.com\/repentance-and-forgiveness-in-a-pornified-age\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">erodes<\/a> the sexual dance. It fuels addiction-like patterns, distorts expectations, delays family formation, and contributes to relational breakdown and declining fertility. And it shapes appetites in destructive ways, desensitizing users and escalating their emotions, mental patterns, and actions toward greater extremes.<\/p>\n<p>Ward\u2019s postmortem of the OPTF makes clear that the structural problems that belied its success were symptoms, not the disease. The real obstacle is a professional class that views obscenity prosecution as distasteful and dishonorable.<\/p>\n<p>Reversing porn\u2019s societal denigration requires a restored recognition that the defense of a decent sexual order is indeed honorable, as is creating the conditions for male vitality. Revived prosecutorial efforts need resources, clear mandates, and top-level support to overcome bureaucratic inertia. High-value targets \u2014 major distributors and platforms hiding behind Section 230 \u2014 must face accountability. But none of that will happen without those who recognize that true honor is to be found in protecting their communities from the plague of pornography.<\/p>\n<p>The laws have not changed. The evidence of pornography\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/marriage-and-family\/report\/postmortem-the-sexual-revolution-what-deregulation-pornography-has\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">harms<\/a> has only grown clearer. Can attorneys win honor by bringing down porn platforms and distributors? The sexual revolution\u2019s final victory can only be rolled back when conservatives insist that defending the conditions for healthy families and a decent public square is among the most honorable tasks of law and politics.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Scott Yenor is Chair of the American Citizenship Initiative an Senior Research Fellow, AWC Family Foundation at the Heritage Foundation and Caleb Pirc is General Counsel and Director of the Idaho Family Policy Center\u2019s Legal Center.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Society tolerates porn more than it enforces obscenity laws<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4354,"featured_media":2627885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pexels-john-giannis-tekeridis-21837-19285775.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[15453,82525,35390,48528,12136],"class_list":["post-2627884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-awareness","tag-combating-exploitation","tag-mental-health","tag-porn-addiction","tag-recovery"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pexels-john-giannis-tekeridis-21837-19285775.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2627892,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627884\/revisions\/2627892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2627885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}