Provo film calls porn epidemic

PROVO — The first time Shelley Lubben walked into a porn studio, she said she felt a sense of evil wash over her.

"You could just feel this darkness," the ex-porn star said. "I remember I wanted to back out of it."

Lubben, who said she was sexually molested as a 9-year-old, turned to prostitution in her late teens to support herself. Three pregnancies and two miscarriages later, she entered the adult entertainment industry and soon sunk deeper into drug and alcohol addictions and contracted herpes.

"I turned my human spirit off and just became this zombie named Roxy," said Lubben in a new anti-pornography docu- mentary "Traffic Control."

The documentary, produced by Provo film company Living Biography, details the rampant increase in Internet pornography today, as well as the fight to stop it.

The film's release coincided with the Utah House of Representatives' decision on Jan. 30 to pass a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to curb Internet pornography. The bill passed unanimously in both the House and Senate and will encourage federal lawmakers to limit the accessibility of pornography for children and employees.

Access to pornography is a major issue for modern society, said Rep. Bradley Daw, R-Orem, the bill's sponsor.

"I can't tell you how many stories I've heard, how many lives I've seen destroyed (by pornography)," he said. "This is an absolute scourge on our society."

Utah's attempt will help push the anti-pornography cause forward, said Ralph Yarro, founder of CP80 Foundation, a Utah-based nonprofit that worked in conjunction with Living Biography to create "Traffic Control."

As for the Utah bill, "it will be the shot heard around the world," Yarro said. "Utah is standing up and saying, 'Porn is a problem."'

Utah is one of seven states attempting to pass resolutions to stop the prevalence of porn on the Internet.

"The most significant next to ours is Oregon's," said Yarro at a recent screening of the documentary.

The bill, if passed, would declare pornography a "public health emergency," he said.

"Traffic Control" reveals story after story of lives affected by pornography, from teenagers on the streets of major American cities to business owners.

The film examines various aspects of the adult-entertainment industry, which brings in more than $12 billion a year, according to estimates made by the Free Speech Coalition, the voice of the porn industry.

Teens interviewed in the film tell stories of their consumption of pornography — from viewing to acting out themselves.

"I know a couple people making porn," said a high school junior in an interview. "They're 14 or 15 (years old) probably."