Oklahoma Senate Bill 1976, which was introduced by State Senator Dusty Deevers, aims to criminalize the very act of sexting or disseminating intimate photos.
According to the bill’s language, “Any visual depiction or individual image stored or contained in any format on any medium including, but not limited to, film, motion picture, videotape, photograph, negative, undeveloped film, slide, photographic product, reproduction of a photographic product, play, or performance.”
Reason magazine, a culturally leftist libertarian platform, has described this bill as so “extreme that it could even make sexting outside of a marriage a crime.”
Generally speaking, the First Amendment protects pornography, with the exception of pornographic content featuring underage individuals or obscene content. Deevers’ bill introduces a new category of prohibited material — “unlawful pornography,”
Dan Frieth of Reclaim the Net observed the following of SB 1976:
Sen. Deevers’ proposed legislation is incredibly comprehensive, including both visual depictions and individual images across multiple mediums in its definition of illicit porn. It seeks to forbid not only explicit sexual acts but also anything designed to excite sexual interest, such as nudity or the suggestion of sexual activity. The bill extends beyond conventional pornography, encompassing a wide array of adult content and establishing a high bar for what is considered having serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific value, thereby putting sexting, and even some social media posts and private messages in its scope.
Many libertines will moan about this legislation, but such measures are very much overdue in a morally bankrupt polity like the US. There comes a point when degenerate behavior has to be punished. Moreover, in a hyper-polarized political environment, red states can do their party by passing legislation that their socially conservative constituencies have long clamored for.
If the US is to remain a free society, it must establish some semblance of order and restrain some of our most depraved desires.