Porn vs. Child Porn

Delaware Democrat Tom Carper is calling for a 25% tax on all internet pornography, as part of a bill that also includes forced age verification on all porn sites. On the surface this sounds like it's a Good Thing - makes porn less accessible, and hopefully restricts underage access to it. But wait! Let's drop the gut instinct characteristic of the average American voter and think for a second.

Free porn is everywhere. Barring that, there is a large category of models that likes to do "almost-porn", sorta like the girls that give blowjobs and then call themselves virgins. How will this bill affect these sites at all? I'm assuming that the people who pay for porn make up a very minor minority, because for the sake of American morality I hope that there are very few people willing to pay ten bucks a month to watch people get gangbanged. The truth is, the majority of Internet porn-users will be unaffected, and this will simply become another revenue stream to attempt to fill our massive debt-laden budget.

Supposedly this money will go towards a fund for prosecuting child pornographers. Whether or not this money is properly used or not, this still puts us in the peculiar position of relying on pornographers to fund the war against child porn. Rather than stamp it out as his morals would dictate, Senator Carper's proposition would actually help ensure the continued existence of porn.