In recent years, legislation aimed at restricting access to online porn sites has become more and more popular in conservative states, but in Michigan, lawmakers have just introduced a bill that would ban all online pornography, full stop.
The legislation, which offers a deeply draconian perspective on human sexuality, was introduced on Sept. 11th, and its primary sponsor is Rep. Josh Schriver (R-Oxford). The “Anticorruption of Public Morals Act,” which sounds like a bill whose name (and contents) were sourced from the 1930s, would ban all “pornographic material.” What does that mean? According to the bill text, it means “content, digital, streamed, or otherwise distributed on the internet, the primary purpose of which is to sexually arouse or gratify, including videos, erotica, magazines, stories, manga, material generated by artificial intelligence, live feeds, or sound clips.”
That, uh, sure sounds like a lot. Additionally, the bill would also define “any depiction or description of trans people as pornographic,” which means that such depictions would also be banned, 404 Media writes. Indeed, while the bill text does not include any specific mentions of trans people as a group, it does include a stipulation that would ban the following category of media: “a depiction, description, or simulation, whether real, animated, digitally generated, written, or auditory, that includes a disconnection between biology and gender by an individual of 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’s top sponsor, Schriver, claims this is all about defending children. “These measures defend children, safeguard our communities, and put families first,” Schriver recently wrote on X. “Obscene and harmful content online threatens Michigan families, especially children.”
Pornography is obviously a complicated subject with a twisty, not altogether politically neat history, and there are plenty of nuanced conversations to be had about it. One thing’s for sure: an outright ban on it isn’t nuanced, nor does it allow for any conversation at all.
Gizmodo reached out to Schriver’s office for comment and will update this story if he responds.
While, in earlier times, third-wave feminists were the ones advocating for an abolition of the porn industry, in recent times, conservatives have led the charge, albeit for an entirely different set of reasons. Earlier this year, rightwing Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA), which would have effectively criminalized all pornography nationwide. Not much has happened with the bill since it was introduced and referred to a Senate committee. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which many believe has acted as a kind of rightwing policy bible for the Trump administration, has also advocated for criminalizing all pornography.
Lucas Ropek
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