\n\n“You can take down the big targets, the Pornhubs and Kiwi Farms of the world, easily enough. Maybe you toss their owners in jail or hit them with big fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when their erstwhile users make a new site, or a thousand new sites\u2014and they will<\/a>\u2014will they all get taken down too? Will you get everyone who uploads a video or leaves a comment? Everyone whose internet history shows they’ve visited these sites? What about emailing the banned content to download for offline viewing\u2014is that illegal too? What kind of mass surveillance apparatus are you willing to build to catch everyone who bypasses the ban?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you catch them, what then? Would the government fine people? Garnish their wages? Put them on a<\/a> sex offender registry? Take away their children<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Would we imprison people over pornography? For how long? (Remember, we’re talking about a ban on all <\/em>porn or other objectionable but currently legal content, not already and rightly illegal things like child pornography, nonconsensual pornography, or the swatting to which Greene was subjected.) Is a family better off if the dad gets three strikes<\/a> and goes to prison for a year and can’t find a job when he gets out<\/a>? Will putting a young man addicted to pornography in the criminogenic environment<\/a> of prison make him more or less likely to get his life on track?<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of this is to suggest porn is a good thing or that I’m sorry to see Kiwi Farms go. I believe pornography is evil<\/a>, and from what I know of Kiwi Farms, good riddance. But as Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter observed<\/a> in 2014, “making an offense criminal” doesn’t simply show “how much we care about it.” Ultimately, every ban creates the possibility “that the police will go armed to enforce it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t get squeamish, prohibitionists. Tell us what stick you have in mind. Content ban plans can’t be taken seriously until you explain what, exactly, you want the state to do to people who break your rules.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n