The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
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Over the decades I’ve been part of the online adult entertainment industry, the internet has gone from being essentially unregulated to an increasingly regulated space, particularly where sexually explicit content is concerned.
Thirty years ago, as a guy working for a company that operated both free and subscription adult sites, my primary legal concerns were the seemingly remote possibility of being prosecuted for obscenity law violations and the far more likely possibility of being sued in civil court for something like copyright infringement, should one of our designers ever get carried away and use content for which our company didn’t hold the rights.
Over the decades, I think it’s fair to say the prevailing sense among people in the online adult sector has been that Republican administrations present a greater risk of obscenity law enforcement, especially at the federal level.
That belief has largely been supported by the evidence over the years, as federal obscenity cases involving adult material (as opposed to child pornography cases, which every Justice Department rightfully prosecutes vigorously) were just about nonexistent under the Clinton Administration, after being commonplace under the George H.W. Bush Administration.
After George W. Bush took the White House in 2000, obscenity prosecutions were once again pursued, including cases that carried over beyond his term in office. During the Obama Administration, the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force (OPTF), created in 2005 and responsible for prosecuting adult obscenity cases under the George W. Bush administration, was dissolved.
These days, the possibility of being prosecuted for an obscenity crime probably doesn’t often enter the minds of adult site operators, in part because unlike his Republican predecessors, Donald Trump has shown little interest in prosecuting adult obscenity cases. I’m sure if James Comey ever launches a porn site, Trump will develop a sudden interest in prosecuting at least one obscenity case, but short of that, I don’t think a reestablishment of the OPTF is imminent – regardless of any pledge Trump once signed to the contrary.
While obscenity prosecutions might not be occupying much mental space for adult entrepreneurs these days, the online space is otherwise much more closely regulated than it once was. The proliferation of age verification laws across the U.S., fines doled out by Ofcom in the United Kingdom and similar developmentselsewhere in Europe show the extent to which governments have imposed their will on the once freewheeling internet.
Last week’s midterm elections in the United States could lead to sweeping policy changes in a variety of areas, especially those which newly elected Democrats believe are important to the voters who elected them. And while I’d like to think reasonable regulation of online spaces and a show of restraint with respect to laws that impact freedom of expression online is both important to the voters who created the “Blue Wave,” I certainly don’t have any polling data to back up that notion.
I’ve also been around long enough to come to grips with the realization that some things I think are bad ideas, or good ideas executed badly, also happen to be politically popular –or even enjoy bipartisan political popularity, a very rare thing in the deeply divided modern electorate.
Unfortunately for those who believe things like age verification laws offer more downside than upside (at least as they are currently structured and enforced), these laws have largely sailed through state legislatures, in part because they present legislators with an opportunity to vote for something that’s popular and relatively noncontroversial.
The bottom line, ever since I first became aware of how politics, law and the adult industry interact, has been this: Our industry has very few friends in Washington. Hell, we don’t even have enough friends in Phoenix to make a difference. And in the case of the Grand Canyon State’s capital, it hasn’t been for lack of trying
Back in May of 2025, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed HB 2112, bringing into force the state’s age verification law. During the debate and drafting process, the bill met with staunch opposition, led in part by the adult industry trade association, Free Speech Coalition.
As FSC noted in a statement released when Hobbs signed the bill, the organization “led the fight against the bill since it was introduced in January, testifying against it repeatedly in committee, meeting with Republican and Democratic legislators in Arizona and building a broad-based coalition.” FSC Director of Public Policy Mike Stabile was “a constant figure in Phoenix” during the year running up to the vote on the bill, “securing near-universal Democratic opposition to the bill despite heavy political headwinds in the state,” FSC added.
Obviously, Hobbs then signed the bill anyway, a development that left FSC “disappointed,” as the organization put it, a term far more measured than those they probably wanted to use, given the lobbying effort FSC had put in.
I’m not suggesting all political lobbying is in vain, or that organizations like FSC should simply throw in the towel. I’m just saying, based on decades of experience, the disappointment the FSC felt at Gov. Hobbs isn’t a new sensation. It’s also one we’re not likely to avoid feeling again in response to many legislative sessions to come, whether the states involved are red, blue, or purple.
