Us Obscenity & Child Pornography Law

Question 1

What gives US law on sexual content worldwide significance?

Answer 1

• Size of US porn industry is huge
• Exact estimates are difficult to recall
• -> They are private companies
• -> Industry not required to disclose financial data
• Porn produce in US circulated
• What’s legal and not legal in US influence what the world sees
• Hard to meet obscenity law in US

Question 2

What is considered obscene in the US? (Past and Present)

Answer 2

Past:
- Hicklin followed until 1957

Present:
- Distribution of obscene material can be criminalised

• Legal for adults to possess obscenity
  (Howto possess without distribution unless the person made it herself?)

Miller Test - Basic Guidelines

1. “The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole
   - -> appeals to the prurient (excessive sexual) interest, &
   - -> depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by state law
2. AND “The work, taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”

Question 3

What are examples of obscenity in the US?

Answer 3

• Examples of what could be obscenity
• -> “Patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or stimulated” OR
• -> “Patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, & lewd exhibition of the genitals”

Question 4

What is not considered obscene in the US?

Answer 4

• Bare breasts
• Genitals – if not “lewd exhibition”
• (Simulated) sex acts that aren’t “patently offensive”

Question 5

What is prohibited under the Child Pornography Law in US?

Answer 5

• Prohibited:
• -> Sexually explicit photos & videos of actual minors (<18) –include nudity
• -> Criminal offence to possess, create, distribute,

Question 6

What is allowed under the Child Pornography Law in US?

Answer 6

• Allowed:
• -> virtual child porn
• -> Wholly computer-generated
• -> 2002: Not real children used

Question 7

What is the rationale for Child Pornography in the US?

Answer 7

• Rationales:
• -> “State does not rely on a paternalistic interest in regulating [a consumer’s] mind” but in preventing child abuse
• -> Eliminate “permanent record” of abuse (photograph)

Question 8

What is the rationale for porn in the US?

Answer 8

• Most porn not illegal under US law
• Enforcement of obscenity law is not a priority
• Prosecutions are rare but child porn laws are enforced