Michigan could become the first U.S. state to completely ban online pornography, if a state representative has his way.
State House Bill 4938, to be known as the "Anticorruption of Public Morals Act", would "prohibit the distribution of certain material on the internet that corrupts the public morals and prescribe penalties".
The bill was introduced by State Representative Josh Schriver of Oxford, and has five co-sponsors. All are Republicans, who hold control of the Michigan House.
Schriver told Detroit television station WJBK that he introduced the bill because he believes pornography has negative effects on marriages and is associated with human trafficking.
"Right now, we have a situation where you have over 90 per cent of youth under the age of 18 who have seen pornography, Schriver told Fox 2. "It’s killing our drive, it’s killing our morality, and it’s something that has no place in western civilization."
Should the bill become law, it would be illegal in Michigan to view any form of pornography, including various depictions of sex acts.
It also includes a provision that appears to target transgender people, banning material that "includes a disconnection between biology and gender by an individual of one biological sex imitating, depicting, or representing himself or herself to be of the other biological sex by means of a combination of attire, cosmetology, or prosthetics, or as having a reproductive nature contrary to the individual's biological sex."
The bill received first reading last week and has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee.
