These stories about Utah and the comments people make here on HN disappoint me. So many of them are based on prejudices and biases.
I've lived in many places in the USA, from SF to Chicago to NYC to Utah. And honestly, they're just not all that different.
People's sterotypes of the predominant LDS (Mormon) religion make them believe that Utah is unique and a theocracy.
In reality much of American law is based on very similar Christian moral standards. Most states are majority Christian, the laws reflect that. The difference in Utah is that it's mostly _one_ religion, rather than say a mix of various protestant and Catholic faiths.
Try walking around fully naked in any of the places I mentioned above, like into an office building or a university or other establishment, and I guarantee you that those more liberal places will also not tolerate that behavior. Not due to any direct harm you'd be causing, but due to moral standards encoded into culture and law.
Same with alcohol, tobacco, and all the other "vices" people believe are banned in Utah (they're not). If you drive around downtown Salt Lake City, you'll see bars, signs for cannabis cards, smoke shops, and even a some decent breweries. It feels a lot like most American cities. (Granted that elsewhere in Utah like in Provo, you see many fewer of these). Nearly every state allows, but restricts and limits all of these substances and activities in various ways, from licensing to age limits, and Utah is not really very different.
For porn specifically, there have been laws on the books in many states to restrict access to minors for a long time. In the age of magazines, do you think it was legal for a business in California to sell such materials to a minor? If not, why not? Because it was either deemed harmful or immoral, beliefs eventually rooted in religion.
Now, this specific law is impractical, Utah simply does not have the market power to induce a player like Apple or Google to make device-level age verification the way that Pornhub is suggesting. So the state of Utah has put into effect a law that will result in reduced access to porn (followed by subversion through VPNs) rather than actually age verification. And in the process the state is hurting its reputation.
But the generalizations here about the state due to religious and political biases are just not helpful.
American puritanism is cultural and not just a result of christianity. Many pious christian countries have always had legal prostitution and more lax attitudes to nudity/porn
The UK and the US are countries with visible anti-porn movements, and prostitution is illegal in US.
On the contrary prostitution is legal and acceptable in (more religious) italy, spain, portugal, france and there is no strong opposition to pornography
I mostly agree with your comment (I grew up partially in Utah, and moved there as an adult for many years), but I think you're being a little too black or white.
> Same with alcohol, tobacco, and all the other "vices" people believe are banned in Utah (they're not).
Yes they are "legal" now (well, cannabis legality is pretty debatable), but there are some significant restrictions on their use that are absolutely not all that typical. Like, in Utah there is a state-enforced monopoly on liquor stores (from a state that in most cases would decry such anti-free-market practices). There are also draconian bar regulations. They have loosened up some of those things a bit (especially after the 2002 olympics), but there are still significant impediments, particularly if you're outside of SLC. In SLC there are enough non-Mormons that you can find plenty of bars and stuff. I remember not too long ago when "bars" were banned in Utah. You had to be a "private club" so the "bars" would charge a cover, call it a "membership fee" and when you went in you were joining the private club for one day. The radio ads that played always ended with a fast talking "xyz is a private club for members only" lol.
In these places, you can go to jail for posting a slur on Twitter or doing a Nazi salute.
In America, that is (or should be) considered insane dystopian bullshit, not "level-headed" policy.
Also, both those places have a comically naive and hamfisted understanding of the Internet, and America is usually above that (as every modern country should be). Didn't England try to ban encryption, and didn't Germany censor all of YouTube with GEMA via a super-literal interpretation of copyright violation? Are these places that sound appealing to live in as a technophile? "Das Internet ist Neuland." *puts on 3D glasses*
I've lived in many places in the USA, from SF to Chicago to NYC to Utah. And honestly, they're just not all that different.
People's sterotypes of the predominant LDS (Mormon) religion make them believe that Utah is unique and a theocracy.
In reality much of American law is based on very similar Christian moral standards. Most states are majority Christian, the laws reflect that. The difference in Utah is that it's mostly _one_ religion, rather than say a mix of various protestant and Catholic faiths.
Try walking around fully naked in any of the places I mentioned above, like into an office building or a university or other establishment, and I guarantee you that those more liberal places will also not tolerate that behavior. Not due to any direct harm you'd be causing, but due to moral standards encoded into culture and law.
Same with alcohol, tobacco, and all the other "vices" people believe are banned in Utah (they're not). If you drive around downtown Salt Lake City, you'll see bars, signs for cannabis cards, smoke shops, and even a some decent breweries. It feels a lot like most American cities. (Granted that elsewhere in Utah like in Provo, you see many fewer of these). Nearly every state allows, but restricts and limits all of these substances and activities in various ways, from licensing to age limits, and Utah is not really very different.
For porn specifically, there have been laws on the books in many states to restrict access to minors for a long time. In the age of magazines, do you think it was legal for a business in California to sell such materials to a minor? If not, why not? Because it was either deemed harmful or immoral, beliefs eventually rooted in religion.
Beyond that, is Utah actually different than other places most Americans would respect for being more "level-headed", like the UK (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-porn-ban-digital-economy-...) or Germany (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/germany-porn-laws-age-checks)?
Now, this specific law is impractical, Utah simply does not have the market power to induce a player like Apple or Google to make device-level age verification the way that Pornhub is suggesting. So the state of Utah has put into effect a law that will result in reduced access to porn (followed by subversion through VPNs) rather than actually age verification. And in the process the state is hurting its reputation.
But the generalizations here about the state due to religious and political biases are just not helpful.