2024 Matthew Monfore Porn Bill Testimony South Dakota Legislature

***Re: % Cell phone users, amended statistic at point 8.
Sorry, I take my words very seriously

2024 Matthew Monfore Porn Bill Testimony South Dakota Legislature

Hello, my name is Matthew Monfore from Oral, SD, Fall River County (Hot Springs area). I am 29 years old.
Greetings to Chair Duhamel and the committee for Senate Judiciary

I testify in support of HB 1257 - An Act to require age verification by websites containing material harmful to minors.

1. As someone personally affected by Pornography, and someone who has spoken to hundreds, if not thousands of young people, and old alike, including as an ordained Christian Preacher, I can testify firsthand to the horror and devastation of online pornography
2. I am making this video testimony today, as I had a family member in need of assistance for medical reasons, and I am not sure if I will be able to make it in person
3. I cannot imagine a more important Bill before you today.
4. As there are untold millions, if not billions, of people affected by Pornography. AS it is estimated that 5.3 billion people, including 65% of the world’s population are quote ‘internet users” and that pornography whether viewed by accident or on purpose, most likely has affected most, or all of them…
5. And lets’ face it, “pornography” is a nice term. Included in pornography are literal child pornography, literal rape, violent sexual practices, orgies, acted out role playing of every depravity imaginable, all at the click of a button. No safeguards
6. These are being used for masturbation, and ruining minds, brains, hearts, and sexual organs.
7. I submitted to you, and ask that it be in the record, the list of titles of porn videos that automatically played form just ONE porn site that could be accessed with no deterrent. This was presented in the LA legislature as well by Rep. Laurie Schlegel
8. ***According to one site, around 90% of Americans have a smart phone, as a Rep. in LA called it, “a personal porn device”
a. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/
b. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/cell_phones/how-many-americans-own-a-smartphone.html

9. And Pew Research Center, 95% of teens from 13 to 17 have accesss to a smartphone. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/
10. If I were to play for you , on your committee tv the videos, photos, etc accessible to you, I doubt you would allow it. But yet children have mostly unfettered access to these today.

11. My generation has been affected like none other. This isn’t merely Judy Blume Books talking about sexual matters or a playboy found in your parents closet. These are hard core videos, that are aggressive and violent, affecting men and women.

12. Before I get ino the nuts and bolts, how has pornography affected me?

13. I look clean from the outside and have lived an upright and God fearing life, but I don’t want to forget where I have come from.

14. Take in mind, we lived in a different world 20 years ago. I was born in 1994 before the “porn boom”

15. Facebook became available for the public in 2006

16. The first iphone smart phone and “ipod touch” with wifi came out in 2007

17. The first ipad came out in 2010

18. South Dakota adopted School laptops in 2006

a. https://www.zdnet.com/article/south-dakota-gives-laptops-to-all/

19. Laptops with wifi were entering schools and becoming more affordable

20. I remember the first time I saw pornography: I was around the 5th grade. I went downstairs to our “computer room”. The big “tube desktop”. There was an image of a naked girl on the screen. I don’t believe anyone in my family put that there on purpose as it seemed to be one of the annoying “popups”

21. Fast forward to a little later. I am at a relatives home and my cousin a little younger than I talks to me about accessing porn on the ipod touch”, which was an iphone without cell service basically. He was from a larger school and town than I was. I would come to learn this was common.

22. I would continue to hear more talk of porn in locker rooms, at schools, among athletic coaches. I even had teammates thrust, or offer, pornography on their screens to me at a team hotel or a game.

23. Pornography was seen as a badge of manhood, and that is what I will call it

24. I do not doubt that the majority, if not all, of my classmates at school had viewed pornography, especially men.

25. Thinking pornography would make me more manly, I viewed pornography because of the feeling acting on the sensory overload provided.

26. In high school, this effected how I viewed women. Despite being a virgin and sexually pure to this day. This also affected my sexual organs negatively.

27. Now, being free form pornography, through accurate information based, and including adherence to Rational and Christian principles I am porn free, but it took years for the effects of pornography use to heal.

28. Now being involved in evangelism and counseling, I can tell you, that the ONLY exceptions to porn use I come across for youths are homeschooled children whose parents guarded and instructed them from pornography.
29. I have listened to hours of testimony on similar bills, including the original state this was proposed in, Louisiana, by Lauri Schlegel, a licensed Sex Addiction Therapist in the New Orleans area. I also listened to testimony in Virginia, Texas, and Utah. I also listened to the Oral Arguments of the Texas AG’s office John Ramsay’s winning arguments in the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
30. This bill would amend South Dakota’s Criminal Code Title 22-24-27
a. Protecting minors from harmful material - pornography
b. And demand “reasonable age verification” for access to a porn site
c. Allows civil action
d. Damages
e. Demands verifying not include personally identifying information.
f. Allows for the Attorney General to investigate and initiate Civil Action
31. Litigation has been successful in Texas, Louisiana, and Utah in regards to upholding this similar law in those states.
32. These bills are supported BIPARTISANLY, even unanimously in Chambers with rare exceptions, in states like Texas, Louisiana, Utah, where there are dozens of Democrats and Republican Majorities
a. **as a side note. I will say the testimonies I observed are much more accommodating, open, and the arguments/discussions far more robust than what I have seen in South Dakota Legislative Committees.
33. Supreme Court precedents and arguments brough to bare are:
a. Ginsberg v. New York 1968 regarding selling harmful material (pornography magazines) to someone under 17
b. US AG Reno v. ALU 1997 regarding 1996 Communications Decency Act
c. Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition 2002 regarding The Child Pornography Act of 1996
d. **Of important note is the difference of technology at the times of those cases. 1. Social media 2. Smart phones and 3. Laptops were not widespread among under 18 individuals.
34. At play are constitutional issues and other principles
a. 1st amendment speech
b. Broad and vague language
c. Obscenity and indecency
d. Compelling interest for the STATE at protecting minors under 18
e. Interstate commerce clause
f. Burden on adults and protected speech
g. Pervasiveness and access
35. At play in the Supreme Court Cases, ideas arise
a. Technology available at the time, maybe one den in the family room vs most Americans having a Smart phone, personal computer
b. Constitution pervasiveness
c. Study is out that filters, the “status’ quo” are not effective
d. 2018, Internet Filtering and Adolescent Exposure to Online Sexual Material
i. Oxford Internet Institute, Dr. Nash
ii. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2017.0466

36. Technologically,
a. Age Verification is used today for buying wine or gambling online
b. Age verification is not burdensome to adults and can be done in a minute, or a few minutes at most
c. Here is a presentation by Reps. Form the age verification company LA Wallet testifying beforethe LA Legislature
d. ***Video This is the author of the 2022 Age verification bill, and the most in-depth discussion, etc. behind the bill. In the testimony below. Fast forward a bit and you will see their slide show presentation.
e. Rep. Laurie Schlegel’s Committee Testimony from 2022 Louisiana HB 142.
f. She is the “mother of the age verification bill”
g. She is a Counselor to sex addiction in the New Orleans, LA area.
h.
i. 1st on the docket. About 40 mins. Long
j. https://house.louisiana.gov/h_video/VideoArchivePlayer?v=house/2022/apr/0418_22_CL
37. Harms. I don’t think too many here will disagree with the harms of pornography to the brain.
a. Helpful resources include experts
i. Dr. Valerie Voon , PHd Cambridge with leading studies in 2013 and 2016
1. 2013, Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviours
a. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102419
ii. Compulsive sexual behavior: Prefrontal and limbic volume and interactions
a. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5324617/
iii. https://fightthenewdrug.org/cambridge-neuroscientist-valerie-voon-porn-drug-addict-brain/
iv. Dr. Don Hilton
v. Dr. Simone Kuhn
vi. Dr. William Struthers at Wheaton
b. The documentary Brain Heart World
c. https://brainheartworld.org/
d. Porn on the Brain
i. UK Documentary
ii. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WxsY9zgrt4
e. https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/
f. Your Brain on Porn book
g. Brain on porn compared to Heroine Addict
i. Article
ii. https://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/your-brain-on-porn/
iii. Dr. Lawrence V. Tucker https://youtu.be/3gNHeZkUx80?si=QjqjTuFhUuaxRQ0_
38. Currently
a. Ag of TX Ken Paxton , as of Press Release on February 26, 2024 is suing
b. Aylo Global the parent company of Pornhub. For an injuction of age verification and for potentially $ millions in civil penalties.
c. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-major-pornography-distributor-violating-texas-age-verification-laws
39. What pornography is doing to the brain, amygdala, prefontal cortex, etc is of note
40. Cause of Erectle Dysfunction its feeding to human trafficking, sexual violence, detioration of the family are rephrensible
41. It is time to protect our children and I urge you to pass this bill
42. Thank you
*John Ramsays Oral Arguments US 5th Circuit Appeals
https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/OralArgRecordings/23/23-50627_10-4-2023.mp3