New Bill Will Force People to Register With the State and Pay a Fee to Watch Porn
Lawmakers are seeking to invade the privacy of citizens with a bill requiring them to pay the government for the privilege of viewing pornography online.
Citizens of the state of Virginia may have to start paying the government a fee in order to access adult websites. The Orwellian and unconstitutional bill is being presented under the guise of the prevention of human trafficking. Lawmakers in the state recently proposed Virginia House Bill 1592, which is also known as “The Human Trafficking Prevention Act.”
Advocates of the bill claim that locking pornographic sites behind a $20 paywall will somehow prevent human trafficking. However, the bill has created a great deal of controversy in the state, as many people rightfully see this as an invasion of privacy and an infringement of their rights. Also, there has been no real explanation from the government as to how they determined that pornography was related to human trafficking.
Many Virginia residents have said they disagree with the bill.
“I think that’s a freedom we all have as Americans, I just don’t see the relevance at all,” Grace Owens told reporters.
“It’s like a sin tax, getting cigarettes or alcohol or anything else,” said Charles Plant.
Sadly, however, there are some people who actually support this.
“If people want to view pornography, that’s their prerogative. But by having it free, it makes it too tempting for other people on the web to have access that can be influenced in a negative way,” Terrie Foss said.
Others who were interviewed by reporters about the proposed bill authored slightly less authoritarian solutions, such as only banning specific types of porn.
“I feel there are a lot of side alleys you could go down, maybe only types of porn verses other types,” a woman named Carrie said during a street interview.
Since this is only happening in one area, for now, if the law is passed it will still be possible for Virginia residents to use a VPN service so the internet service provider thinks that they are accessing the site from another state or country.
It is estimated that 28,258 users — every single second — access porn on the internet. Those numbers are staggering and allowing government access to all those identities would be a death blow to online privacy.
