Verizon defends decision to offer incest and child themed porn on video-on-demand

Verizon's FiOS TV programming is displayed at the Verizon booth on the second day of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 9, 2013. (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES – Broadband and telecommunications giant Verizon is under fire for defending its decision to provide hard-core porn titles with child and incest themes. The company was included in the 2014 Dirty Dozen List of pornography’s leading facilitators, compiled by Morality in Media (MIM), a national organization that opposes pornography.

According to MIM, lewd titles like “I Banged My Stepdad,” “Mom, Daughter and Me,” and “Pigtail Teens Pounded” are just some of the many offerings featured on Verizon’s FIOS video on-demand service. In a letter to MIM, Verizon’s Associate Director for Advertising and Content Standards John P. Artney defended the company’s choice to provide the content, noting that “consumers today have extraordinary choice in and control over the content available to them across these networks.”

“The explosion in choice is a tremendous benefit to consumers, but not all consumers want to have access to all content for themselves and their families all of the time,” wrote Artney. “Not all content is desirable to or appropriate for all consumers, however, and Verizon is proud to provide our customers with myriad tools to control the types of content that they and their families have access to through our service.”

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Patrick Trueman, President and CEO of Morality in Media, thinks Verizon’s defense is lacking.

“Verizon needs to show some corporate responsibility. America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography and that harm falls particularly hard on children,” he told FOX411. “We are coordinating with the members of our coalition, numbering 146 groups across the U. S., to alert the public to Verizon's pornography distribution. We have notified the board of Verizon through letters of our position on Verizon's distribution of pornography. We will publish responses from the board and will continue to press and shame the board if no action is taken.”

Ari Zoldan, CEO of digital communications company Quantum Networks, added that “as Americans we believe in freedom of speech, but we also believe in protection of our children’s welfare and well-being first and foremost.”

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But Leo Terrell, of CleartheCourt.com, says Verizon is simply acting like a business.

“Verizon is handling this matter appropriately for its shareholders because it is making them a lot of money,” Terrell said.

L.A-based pop culture expert Jenn Hoffman is also in Verizon’s corner.

“Shouldn't complaints be directed towards the millions of people paying for and enjoying this type of porn rather than a neutral party such as an internet provider?” she said. “It would be pretty impossible for Verizon to satisfy every different view of morality while actually serving consumer needs.”

Verizon did not respond to a request for further comment.

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