Mississippi Targets Big Porn Using Obscenity Laws

by Emily Washburn | May 27, 2025 | Culture Government Updates

A new Mississippi law harnesses the power of the private sector and obscenity laws to strike back at Big Porn.

Mississippi House Bill 599 enables private citizens to sue businesses for publishing obscene content, which is already against the law. The law also levies steep fines on companies found guilty of posting obscenity in a citizen-led lawsuit, including:

Up to $500,000 in noneconomic damages to victims harmed by viewing obscenity.
Punitive damages — fines assigned for “especially reckless or malicious content” meant to discourage the entity from reoffending.

Importantly, HB 599 does not apply to social media companies or search engines. Instead, it regulates businesses and companies, like porn companies, that intentionally publish or sell obscene content.

The legislation sailed through the state Congress in March, with a unanimous vote in the House and an overwhelming 51-1 vote in the Senate. Governor Tate Reeves signed it into law on April 10.

Representative Price Wallace introduced the successful bill in January. For him, the law serves two, equally important purposes: It provides relief to families harmed by hardcore pornography and puts porn companies on notice.

“Big Porn companies only care about one thing — money,” he told the Daily Citizen.

“This bill is telling them to keep their filth out of Mississippi. If they don’t, they’ll be made to pay up.”

Mississippi is the third state to create a right of action for private citizens against companies that platform obscenity. The idea originated in 2024 with Dr. Jameson Taylor, the Director of AFA Action’s Center for Government Renewal.

He and Trey Dellinger, a senior legal fellow at AFA Action, had been working on state age verification bills, which force porn companies to verify consumers’ ages, when he received divine inspiration.

“As we were discussing the differences between ‘regular’ pornography and ‘hardcore pornography’ (obscenity), the Holy Spirit inspired me with a novel idea: Why not just enable people to sue commercial websites that post obscenity?” Dr. Taylor recalls for the Daily Citizen.

Obscenity refers to grievously offensive speech not protected by the First Amendment. Content in this category must satisfy three conditions:

An average person must find the content appeals to prurient interests, as established by contemporary community standards.
It must “lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
It must depicts sex in a way that violates state law.

Federal law and obscenity laws in all fifty states prohibit publishing, selling or distributing obscene content, which includes child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Mississippi additionally classifies “patently offensive” depictions of sexual intercourse, masturbation, lewd exhibition, bestiality and sadomasochism as obscene.

AFA Action’s legislation establishes a symbiotic relationship with state obscenity laws like Mississippi’s. Because the First Amendment doesn’t protect obscenity, the porn lobby will struggle to challenge it in court, Dr. Taylor explains.

In turn, the law helps enforce obscenity codes by encouraging private lawyers to go after violators. Dellinger expounds:

Publishing obscenity is already a crime, but the problem is enforcement. Prosecutors don’t have the manpower to tackle this challenge alone.

There are 50 private lawyers for every prosecutor in Mississippi. This bill incentivizes those private lawyers to get into the fight by letting them sue Big Porn for big damages for harming kids.

Like Representative Wallace, Dr. Taylor believes Big Porn won’t respond to anything but a hit to its bottom line.

“One of these days, a plaintiff’s attorney — [one of] the guys on the billboards — is going to get a multimillion-dollar payout from a porn website posting obscenity,” he predicts.

“Just like with Big Tobacco, that’s when these companies are going to realize they have to do more to protect kids and families from harmful content.”

Oklahoma and South Carolina grafted AFA Action’s legislation onto their respective age verification bills last year. Taylor and Dellinger say Tennessee could pass a similar law in 2026.

Representative Wallace hopes this will be the case.

“This problem is bigger than just Mississippi,” he emphasizes. “These [porn] websites aren’t policing themselves.”

“If more states adopt this law, it will help us get consistent enforcement to stop this problem.”

The Daily Citizen enthusiastically supports HB 599 and any law helping parents keep their kids’ safe from porn and other online traps.

We will continue covering America’s growing reckoning with Big Porn.

Additional Articles and Resources

If you are a loved one are struggling with porn addiction, Focus on the Family can help:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Help For Pornography Addiction

Addicted to Pornography

Your Marriage Can Win the Battle Against Pornography

To learn more about modern pornography and its effect on children, click on the links below: