Moral Policing in the Digital Age: Are We Watching the Slow Death of Adult Freedom?

There’s a quiet movement gaining traction—and it’s not just about values. It’s about control. Across the U.S., Christian politicians are quietly and clandestingly working to dismantle access to adult content, and it’s not just about protecting minors. It’s about reshaping adult freedom under the weakest guise of morality ever.

Straight to the point:

In Oklahoma, this bill was introduced on the floor that would make the possession, production, or distribution of any pornographic material a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Yeppo—ten years for a grown person of legal age consuming legal content. And the man behind the bill, his name is Senator Dusty Deevers, called porn “a highly addictive drug” that “destroys society.” He’s a Christian nationalist.

Sound crazy? That’s because it is. But it’s also real.

In Texas, lawmakers already had pushed through a law forcing adult sites to verify users’ ages with government-issued ID. And the Supreme Court of the US just let that law stand. Think about that. Not just a random verification box—we’re talking digital tracking of your adult content consumption tied to your legal identity.

This isn’t about whether you personally like porn or not.

There is an oppressive movement happening. In states. It’s about who gets to decide what adults can and can’t do in private. It’s about what happens when religious ideology is given legal teeth.

And make no mistake—this movement has been decades in the making. Organizations like the Center for Christian Virtue have been campaigning against adult content since the 80s. Now they’ve gained political muscle, and they’re using it to push thru sweeping changes that could set a precedent far beyond pornography.

If these laws hold—and more follow all of us will start to see ripple effects:

• Stricter internet surveillance. (Remember the Patriot Act?);
• Reduced online privacy;
• Bans on sexual education resources that fall outside “approved” narratives; and
• Maybe even censorship creep into other personal content choices: books, music, social media

It’s really not difficult to see where this can go. First it’s porn. Then it’s sexual health. Then it’s anything that challenges a narrow moral code.

So if you’re thinking this doesn’t affect you—think again.

This is about personal autonomy.

This is about consensual adult freedom.

This is about whether politicians should get to parent the internet.

They say it’s about values. But if you strip away the PR and religious packaging, it starts to look a lot more like digital authoritarianism in a cardigan.

If you value freedom, start paying attention now—before it’s your freedom next. Vote in your state’s midterm elections.

Rebut the “Just Use a VPN” Crowd (And Other Lazy Comebacks)

Some people read about Texas’s new law requiring ID to access adult sites and say, “Just use a VPN.” Like that solves everything. Like it’s no big deal.

Let me break this down.

“Just use a VPN.”

That’s like saying, “Just crawl through the window if the front door is locked.”

It doesn’t change the fact that the law is controlling, invasive, and built to monitor adult behavior.

Not everyone knows how to use a VPN, by the way. Not your grandma. Not the average person scrolling on their phone.

And you shouldn’t have to use a workaround to access legal content as an adult. That’s not freedom—that’s forced tech evasion.

“It’s just to protect kids.”

Sure, protect kids.

But this isn’t how you do it. You don’t protect minors by putting every adult under surveillance.

We have tools for this—parental controls, filters, content locks.

If this were really about kids, we’d see the same politicians pushing these laws also fighting for gun reform, since the #1 cause of death for kids in USA is gun violence—not websites.

But they’re not. Because this law isn’t about kids. It’s about control, shame, and fear and it uses kids as a handy excuse.

“They’re not banning it, just regulating it.”

Right. And if I have to flash my some ID every single time I check out a website, read a sex-ed article, or explore something private, how “legal” does that content really feel?

This isn’t about regulation. It’s about deterring people through fear. Who wants to risk their name being logged somewhere, tied to what they viewed? That’s digital intimidation—not “accountability.”

If we keep brushing this off, we normalize it. And next time, it might not just be adult content. It might be banned books, gender education, or reproductive resources.

If you’re okay with surveillance like this, just be honest about it. But don’t pretend it’s “no big deal.”

Because the second we need a VPN to stay private as law-abiding adults?

We already lost something.