LOS ANGELES — Former child actor and current anti-porn activist Rick Schroder is moving forward with “Erotic Erosion,” a new propaganda series against the adult industry.
“Erotic Erosion” is a partnership between two of his entities, the Reel American Heroes Foundation production company and his more recent, religiously inspired anti-porn lobby, the Council on Pornography Reform (CPR).
The Reel American Heroes Foundation website now features a bizarre, sensationalistic “Erotic Erosion” sizzle reel/trailer combining interviews with anti-porn activists edited around disturbing footage of actors portraying people being abused, distressed people in agony and acts of violence.
The trailer also intercuts disjointed, jittery graphics with words like “Trauma” and “Social Media,” images of brain scans purportedly showing damage produced by exposure to adult content, and also oddly lit images of strippers, people at a rave and even a rabbit-masked dancing furry in a rainbow tutu.
The website also describes “Erotic Erosion’s” content and aims: “In a world that’s constantly evolving, few aspects of human society have transformed as dramatically as the realm of adult content. In the past century, adult content has become more and more accessible, first through still images, then magazines, and X-rated films. Today with the internet on cell phones, social media, and lack of restrictions on adult content, viewing pornography is almost inescapable. Adult content is being pushed on our children into our devices and our lives without our consent. But it doesn’t need to stay this way.”
Through this documentary series, the website adds, “we will explore the ever-changing landscape of technology as it merges with America’s obsession with sex and how we can stop the Erotic Erosion of our moral foundation.”
Schroder’s Personal War on Porn
As XBIZ reported, Schroder — whose Instagram account displays an image of a historically inaccurate, European-looking Jesus giving viewers the middle finger — emerged as a leading anti-porn crusader in October, though widely quoted interviews revealing that his Council on Pornography Reform was behind a lengthy brief supporting Texas’ controversial age verification and mandatory labeling law.
Schroder’s group partnered with Virginia and Washington attorney William J. Olson, whom the New York Times characterized as one of a number of “extreme, far-right figures” orbiting Donald Trump in the weeks preceding the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The Times also described Olson as the attorney for “conspiracy theorist and MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell” and gun-rights group Gun Owners of America. He has worked with Republican super PACs and “promoted a conspiracy theory that Vice President Kamala Harris is not eligible to be vice president, falsely claiming she is not a natural-born U.S. citizen.”
Back in October, Schroder’s Council on Pornography Reform website was nonfunctional and the group did not appear to have had an online footprint in nonprofit databases before the filing. The CPR website went live sometime in the past four months.
Schroder spoke at the time about his belief that adult content is not constitutionally protected free speech, as the courts have established for several decades.
“It’s absolutely absurd that they use the First Amendment and freedom of speech as political speech, as the justification for pushing perversion and pornography into our homes, into our pockets,” Schroder told conservative outlet The Western Journal, which originated coverage of the Texas filing and describes itself as “upholding traditional Christian values as articulated in the Bible.”
Schroder was explicitly religious in his opinions about adult content, calling all pornography “a weapon system against God, against common sense. It’s a sickness, it’s a disease and it’s permeated us for too long, and it doesn’t have to stay this way.”
The former child actor contended that although the Texas law explicitly addresses screening minors, “We need to go further than age verification.”