Mike Johnson, the hardline conservative and outspoken Christian who was elected House speaker in October, has raised eyebrows after he admitted using an app which bills itself as a tool to help people “quit porn”.
A year-old clip posted online over the weekend showed Johnson discussing how he and his son use Covenant Eyes, an app which tracks users’ phone and computer use, to monitor each others’ online activity.
“Covenant Eyes is the software that we’ve been using a long time in our household,” Johnson said in the clip, which was reportedly filmed at a “War on Technology” event, hosted by Cypress Baptist church in Louisiana in October 2022.
The Covenant Eyes website describes the app as a tool which “helps you live porn-free with confidence”.
“Porn is a human problem, we provide a human solution,” the website says.
“Covenant Eyes helps you and the ones you love live porn-free through transformative accountability relationships.”
There is no suggestion that Johnson, who last month told Fox News his worldview was, “Go pick up a Bible”, has a pornography addiction. In the video, posted to X by user @receiptmaven, Johnson did not say he had been using Covenant Eyes to control pornography usage.
Covenant Eyes, Johnson said: “Sends a report to your accountability partner. So my accountability partner right now is Jack, my son.”
The pair receive a report on one another’s internet use once a week, Johnson said, although if “anything objectionable comes up”, Johnson or his son will receive an immediate notification.
Johnson said his son has “got a clean slate so far”. In the video Johnson did not comment on his own slate.
Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to questions.
The rightwing and socially conservative newly installed speaker of the House has made his Christian faith a cornerstone of his political career and professional life.
Before entering politics Johnson, 51, worked for Alliance Defending Freedom, a rightwing Christian legal organization which aims to overturn same-sex marriage, enact a total ban on abortion, and strip away the already minimal rights that trans people are afforded in the US.
Speaking to Fox News after he became House speaker, Johnson said: “Someone asked me today in the media, they said: ‘People are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it – that’s my worldview. That’s what I believe and so I make no apologies for it.”
As well as raising questions about what Johnson does – or does not do – on his phone and computer, the Louisiana congressman’s use of Covenant Eyes could raise security concerns.
In 2022 Google determined that Covenant Eyes violated its policies after a Wired investigation raised questions over how, and how much, information the app collected, although the app has since been returned to the Google Play store.
