On the victimsofpornography.org site, visitors are urged to become active against ostensibly unwholesome erotica by meeting with religious leaders, planning a motorcade with white ribbons and writing letters to local newspapers. Largent took the opportunity to fault former President Bill Clinton for not enforcing obscenity statutes. And we have the cure. They haven't hired obscenity prosecutors. A U.S. court can only rule a publication or website to be obscene if it meets standards described in the Supreme Court's 1973 Miller v. California case.
Critics say such laws violate free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Obscenity law was even broad enough to convict Mike Diana, a cartoonist, for gruesome drawings . Daniels argues that activists should worry about themselves rather than trying to regulate the lives of others. The antiporn activists don't see it quite the same way. In recent years, activists from groups such as the Family Research Council and Morality in Media have been trying to make the case that pornography affects not just its consumers, but society as a whole. Vickie Burress, national coordinator for the Victims of Pornography Campaign, defends research that has often been faulted as anecdotal, linking pornography consumption to rape and child abuse.