.- A lawmaker in Utah says the damage internet pornography can cause means people should be able to sue pornography companies.

“To pretend that this is not having any impact on our youth, on children’s minds as they’re developing, as their attitudes towards sex and the opposite sex are being formed, I think is foolish,” Utah State Sen. Todd Weiler said, according to the Utah news site KSL.com.

Weiler has proposed to allow lawsuits against companies that put pornography on the internet. He especially aims to aid underage children and teens who become addicted to pornography.

He compared the proposal to the 70 years of legal action taken against tobacco companies.

“I’m concerned that the average age of first exposure to hardcore sex videos on the Internet is now the age of 11,” he said.

“It’s not government coming in and saying what you can and can't watch. It’s just basically a message to the pornography industry that if someone in Utah can prove damages from the product, that they may be held liable financially.”

The legislator said the first 30 cases brought under the proposal would likely not win. He thought lawsuits would eventually succeed.

He is also authoring a bill to help public libraries filter pornography on Wi-Fi connections.

Weiler sponsored a resolution the Utah legislature passed in March 2016 that recognized pornography as “a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms.”

The resolution charged that pornography perpetuates “a sexually toxic environment” and contributes to the “hyper-sexualization” of young children and teens. It cited pornography’s potential impact on brain development and functioning, its potential to harm users’ ability to form intimate relationships, and its potential to lead to “problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.” The resolution charged that pornography “treats women and children as objects.”

The legislature said that pornography has a detrimental effect on the family linked to “lessening desire in young men to marry, dissatisfaction in marriage, and infidelity.”