A porn site is redirecting web users browsing from Utah to a series of non-explicit sex education videos after legislators rejected a bill that would have allowed sex education classes in school.

The state’s House education committee voted last week to reject the HB215 bill, which would have allowed parents to opt in for their children to attend sex education classes that include lessons on consent and contraception.

Currently, teachers in Utah are required to present a strong abstinence message to students. According to the state’s administrative code, public schools cannot teach about the intricacies of sexual intercourse, nor can they encourage the use of contraception or sexual activity outside of marriage. Advocacy of homosexuality is also banned.



Despite – or perhaps because of – such strict rules around sex education, Utahns appear to have a voracious appetite for porn, with one study finding that people in the state bought more porn than any other in America. However, a more recent state-by-state analysis by Pornhub – one of the world’s largest porn sites – suggested that Utah ranked 34th for porn consumption.

In the wake of the anti-sex education vote, porn site xHamster has started to detect when people are browsing from Utah and given them the option of visiting The Box, a YouTube channel featuring non-explicit sex education videos.

xHamster redirects users from Utah to a sex education website after lawmakers rejected a sex education bill. Photograph: xHamster

The Box answers user-submitted questions about sex and sexuality and features episodes on the female orgasm, how to put on condoms and how to reconcile religious beliefs with a healthy sex life.

“While we love porn, we don’t think that it should be relied on for sex ed any more than Star Wars is a substitute for science class,” said xHamster in a blog post.

Representative Brian King, who sponsored the HB215 bill, said he was “disappointed” and “frustrated” by the vote.

“It’s a shame that in Utah we have to rely on porn sites to provide sex education for our kids,” he said Monday.

The bill was needed, he said, to lessen the transmission of diseases and to reduce rates of teen pregnancy.

“In Utah, we’re seeing a dramatic increase in the rate of chlamydia and gonorrhoea among our teenage and early 20s population,” he said.

“I also want our kids to have a better understanding of what it means to consent and have boundaries,” said. “I don’t want Johnny saying to Mary, ‘Well you got into the back seat with me so you consented to have sex’.”

King plans to bring back a version of the bill in 2018 and will continue to talk to stakeholders about their concerns in the interim.

“But there’s a strong knee-jerk reaction from some members. It’s hard to get people to think logically and rationally when you are talking about sex.”

A spokeswoman for the Utah Republican Women’s Caucus, which opposed the bill, said: “We opposed the bill because parents are primarily responsible for educating their children, not schools. The bill would have removed important parental rights like deciding when a child was ready to learn what subject matter.”