HJR 166 Summary

• Recognizes pornography as a public health crisis in Alabama requiring systematic efforts to prevent exposure, addiction, and provide education and recovery programs.

• Identifies pornography's contributions to hyper-sexualization of children and teens, citing increases in low self-esteem, eating disorders, problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and risky sexual behavior.

• States pornography normalizes violence and abuse toward women and children, equates violence with sex, and increases demand for sex trafficking, prostitution, and child sexual abuse.

• Identifies detrimental effects on pornography users including emotional, mental, and medical illnesses, deviant sexual arousal, difficulty maintaining relationships, altered brain development, and addictive behaviors.

• Calls for education, prevention, research, and policy changes at community and societal levels to address pornography as an epidemic harming Alabama's residents and the nation.