Morality in Media Says Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ Approach to Fighting Porn Won’t Prot
NEW YORK (20 March 2001) — On March 20, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on a motion to create a Commission on Child Pornography. The new Commission would have authority to combat child pornography, but unlike the Commission that the Supervisors disbanded on February 20, the new Commission would be powerless to address the floodtide of obscenity engulfing our culture — except when “directed towards minors.”
Morality in Media president Bob Peters had the following comments:
“Child porn is an unspeakable crime; and outside the small worlds of pedophiles, ‘civil libertarians,’ the Supreme Court and Hollywood, the large majority of adults believe society can and should take strong measures to protect children from pornography. Very little of the flood of hardcore pornography now engulfing our culture, however, is ‘directed towards minors.’
“Common sense should also inform us that you can’t flood a society with hardcore porn — via the Internet, TV, telephone, U.S. mails, video stores, convenience stores, newsstands, vending machines, hotels and motels, and ‘sexually oriented businesses’ — and expect to effectively shield children from it.
“For one thing, whatever a parent, ‘domestic partner,’ or older sibling brings into the home often finds its way into the hands of children. And even if children aren’t exposed to the porn itself, they will often be aware of the role model’s consumption of porn.
“For another thing, as hardcore porn becomes more accessible to adults, there will be more opportunities for minors to access it by using fake IDs, by persuading or conning adults to access it for them, or by stealing or hacking into it.
“Because many public officials turn a blind eye towards ‘adult’ obscenity, many mainstream entertainment companies have also become more and more brazen in introducing pornographic content into films, music/rap lyrics and performances, TV programs (e.g., on HBO and Showtime), advertising, video games and comics.
“One of the most popular types of hardcore pornography is ‘teen porn.’ Presumably, most of the ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ who perform in “teen porn” are 18 and over, but many look years younger. ‘Teen porn’ isn’t ‘directed towards minors.’ It’s directed towards adults who lust for minors.
“There are two other reasons why the Supervisors’ approach to fighting pornography won’t work. First, pornography doesn’t just harm children. It also harms many of their parents, and what harms marriages also affects children.
“Second, the very existence of a prosperous and upscale ‘adult entertainment’ industry sends a message that is inimical to family life and children. If porn and other ‘adult entertainment’ are what adult life is all about, why bother with love, self-sacrifice, monogamy, fidelity and children? Why not look forward to a life of selfish promiscuity, infidelity and unspeakable perversity — just like the one Playboy founder Hugh Hefner promotes in publications like ‘Vanity Fair’ (3/2001) and ‘AmericanWay’ (3/15/2001).
“There is a saying, ‘You reap what you sow.’ If, in regard to sexual relationships, adults sow self-restraint, modesty, love, respect, tenderness, and faithfulness, that’s what we reap. If instead we sow self-indulgence, unbridled lust, exploitation, degradation, cruelty, violence, and infidelity, that is what we reap. There aren’t going to be two distinct societies: one for adults, where lewdness, cruelty and depravity prevail; and another for kids, where decency, kindness and self-restraint prevail.
“Just as law is not the whole answer to our nation’s growing ‘moral crisis,’ so federal and state obscenity laws are not the whole answer to our nation’s growing pornography problem.
“But effectively enforced, obscenity laws can provide substantial protection for communities, families and children from the ravages of addictive and morally corrosive hardcore pornography.
“Those who care about the well-being of children should be at the forefront of efforts to promote vigorous enforcement of federal and state obscenity laws. They shouldn’t be undermining law enforcement efforts by turning their backs to the largest concentration of hardcore porn businesses in the world.”
MORALITY IN MEDIA is a nonprofit national interfaith organization, with headquarters in New York City, working through constitutional means to curb traffic in obscenity and to uphold standards of decency in the mainstream media.