(WWJ) A bill designed to ban all forms of pornography in Michigan is on hold for now, while the legislator promoting it makes some edits.
In an X post on Wednesday, Republican Rep. Josh Schriver announced that he will not be advancing the so-called "Public Morals Act" as is, adding: "I am drafting a new version that removes all language regarding VPNs and non-pornographic imagery to ensure this policy only addresses pornography."
This comes after online uproar over the legislation, which targets not only pornographic photos and video, but all sexual content — including real, animated, digitally generated or written — and any depictions of transgender people.
Violators could face up to 20 years in prison.
House Bill 4938, as introduced by Schriver on Sept. 11 of this year, would also outlaw the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy servers, which could allow access to blocked websites.
Schriver must have taken note of the pushback — particularly in relation to the VPNs, which are often used by those doing remote work unrelated to pornography.
On Sept. 17, Schriver posted an update telling his X followers: "The intent of my bill is simple: Internet Service Providers block porn sites. Boom. Done. That’s it. They could do this in like 10 minutes if they wanted to…"
How much support Schriver's bill may have once he makes his changes remains unclear.
Thus far, if judging by the response on social media, people aren't too jazzed about a potential porn ban.
Andrew Gilkison isn't interested in the bill, with or without edits, responding to Schriver simply: "Eradicating pornography is unconstitutional and authoritarian. Go f— yourself."
Haru-Mochi wrote on X: "No, you've got it wrong. It's not your place to decide how people want to live their lives. If you think that degrades morality, fine. People can enjoy it behind closed doors in the comforts of their homes too. Even then, no state should be enacting bills on the premise of 'think of the children' when it's parents' obligation to monitor what their kids are doing. Why should adults have to sacrifice something for what parents omit?"
Beanie suggested: "How about instead of punishing legal adults and censoring what we're allowed to see and can't see and make parents that give their kids unlimited Internet access a form of child endangerment and neglect."
Several X users responding to Rep. Schriver noted that the communist party in China has banned porn, while others panned Schriver's legislation as a free-speech violation, or a "mass surveillance bill."
Speaking to WWJ Newsradio 950's Jeremy Jenkins, Schriver disagreed with shoe who'd call this government overreach.
He simply thinks that no one should be allowed to look at this stuff.
"This is a bill that similar to how heroin is banned," Schriver told Jenkins, in interview last week. "You don't have a free society when your whole society is addicted to something that bears no fruit in their lives, devalues women. It just has no nutritional value, as my mom would say. And so this is something that is actually not a benefit in any way, shape or form."
Version 1 of the bill never made it to committee, and any version would have to past the Democrat-controlled Senate, and ultimately be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to become law.
Schriver lives in Oxford, and represents residents in Oxford, Brandon, Addison, and Oakland townships in northern Oakland County, and Bruce and Washington townships in Macomb County.
Others behind the bill include Reps. Matthew Maddock (R-Milford), Joseph Pavlov (R-Smiths Creek), James DeSana (R-Carleton), and Jennifer Wortz (R-Quincy).