The Rabbinical Alliance of America—Igud HaRabbonim, representing over 950 Orthodox rabbis across North America—expresses its strong support for the United States Supreme Court’s June 27, 2025, decision to uphold the Texas law requiring age verification before granting access to pornographic websites. This ruling is a significant step toward protecting the innocence of children and preserving the moral fabric of our nation. However, while this measure is laudable, it does not go far enough.
“We view this decision as an important first step in addressing the widespread accessibility of obscene content to children,” said Rabbi Yaakov Klass, Presidium Chairman of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. “However, we believe a more comprehensive approach is needed to address the broader societal impacts of this industry. The Torah’s approach to humanity and sanctity demands more from society.”
Not just children but adults, too, suffer spiritual, emotional, and psychological harm from exposure to such corruptive content. Obscene material degrades human dignity, undermines family strength, and fuels an ever-deepening cultural decay. Its damaging impact reaches far beyond the screen—it harms three groups: the participants, the viewers, and society at large.
The participants, by engaging in the creation of deeply indecent images and videos, degrade their own divine image and are drawn into a world that erodes personal sanctity and often exploits vulnerability. The viewers, too, are deeply affected. The images they see implant distorted expectations and diminish their capacity for meaningful relationships, desensitizing them to sacred human connection and to the holiness inherent in each person. Society as a whole bears the cost: marriages and families are weakened, interpersonal respect is eroded, and the foundational principle of treating every human being as a holy individual created by God is undermined. Rather than a society full of people focused on building and creating, we risk becoming a decadent society constantly devoted to fulfilling base desires in the most unholy ways. Every obscene image one sees affects his soul in profound ways.
The internet has compounded this problem dramatically by making obscene content far more accessible than ever before and by multiplying the quantity produced and available at a moment’s notice. What was once hidden away is now aggressively marketed and available at all times. There is now a massive, profit-driven industry making billions of dollars by corrupting souls and undermining human sanctity. These companies deliberately design their platforms and content to foster addiction, using manipulative techniques to trap users in a destructive cycle. The result is the devastation of individuals and families alike, as people lose control over their consumption and relationships suffer under the weight of broken trust and distorted values. The advent of artificial intelligence threatens to turn this societal plague into a tsunami, posing an even greater spiritual and moral danger to individuals and society alike.
“Obscene websites are not just a private religious failing that violates Biblical and Talmudic teachings. They also pose a public threat,” Rabbi Klass added. “The people exploited to produce this content are often victims themselves. The viewers become desensitized to holiness and human value, harming themselves and their families. And the broader society is dragged down by the erosion of modesty and decency. While we privately counsel individuals to avoid the Internet when possible and to use filters and other methods to protect from obscene content, the culture as a whole needs to take action. Society at all governmental and civic levels must promote modest, healthy relationships and actively oppose the corrosive attitudes accelerating our cultural descent into the lowest level of impurity.”
The Rabbinical Alliance of America calls upon lawmakers and community leaders at every level to take courageous, moral stands against this ever-growing plague. Society must not merely guard children at the gate but must work to restore a culture of sanctity for all ages.