HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	114
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the department of health to DESIGNATE pornography as a public health crisis and take action accordingly.

 

 

 

        WHEREAS, pornography perpetuates a sexually toxic environment and has created a public health crisis; and

 

        WHEREAS, efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction, educate individuals and families about pornography-related harms, and develop recovery programs must be systematically approached in ways that hold broader influences accountable; and

 

        WHEREAS, due to advances in technology and the near-universal availability of the internet, young children are exposed to what was previously referred to as hard-core pornography but is now considered mainstream pornography, at an alarming rate; and

 

        WHEREAS, pornography is contributing to the hyper-sexualization of teens and prepubescent children in our society; and

 

        WHEREAS, children are now exposed to pornography at the average age of eleven to twelve years; and

 

        WHEREAS, this early exposure is leading to low self-esteem and body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and an increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior; and

 

        WHEREAS, exposure to pornography often serves as sex education for children and youth and shapes their sexual templates; and

 

        WHEREAS, pornography normalizes violence and abuse because it treats women and children as objects and often depicts rape and abuse as if they are harmless acts; and

 

        WHEREAS, because pornography treats women as objects and commodities for the viewer's use, it teaches girls that they are to be used and teaches boys to be users; and

 

WHEREAS, pornography equates violence toward women and children with sex and associates pain with pleasure, which increases demand for sex trafficking, prostitution, child sexual abuse imagery, and child pornography; and

 

WHEREAS, pornography has potential detrimental effects on users and may impact brain development and functioning; contribute to emotional and medical illnesses; shape deviant sexual arousal; lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining intimate relationships; and result in problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction; and

 

WHEREAS, recent research indicates that pornography is potentially biologically addictive, which means the user requires more novelty, often in the form of more shocking material, in order to be satisfied; and

 

WHEREAS, this biological addiction leads to increasing themes of risky sexual behaviors, extreme degradation, violence, and child sexual abuse imagery and child pornography; and

 

WHEREAS, pornography use is linked to lessening desire in young men to marry, marital dissatisfaction, and infidelity; and

 

WHEREAS, this link demonstrates that pornography has a detrimental effect on the family unit; and

 

WHEREAS, overcoming pornography's harms is beyond the capability of the afflicted individual alone; now, therefore,

 

        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2021, the Senate concurring, that the Governor and Department of Health are requested to designate pornography as a public health crisis that leads to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor and Department of Health recognize the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level in order to address the pornography epidemic that is harming the people of the State and the nation; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor and Department of Health take action accordingly to address pornography as a public health crisis; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and Director of Health.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Pornography; Public Health Crisis Designation; Action