If this is so of parental approval, it is equally so of societal approval another potent influence on the developing ego. The Court called protecting children from exposure to pornography a transcendent interest of government because it concerns the health, safety, welfare and morals of its community by barring the distribution to children of books recognized to be suitable for adults. Third, as you know, obscenity is not protected by the Constitution because, by definition, it is a patently offensive appeal to a prurient interest in sex and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. It is illegal to display or distribute to any person, including adults. This is an industry that exploits the lowest part of human nature and plays on those vulnerable to addiction in order to attract a new generation of customers.
Minor children are no exception.
Anyone who doubts that need only visit the commercial World Wide Web porn sites that flagrantly display scores of free teaser images of their product. These images include bestiality, mutilation, torture, excretory functions, orgies, and other perversions. I have copies of sample materials with me today that are available to the Subcommittee. Although the harmful to minors section has been temporarily enjoined by a federal district court and is pending appeal in the Third Circuit, the court specifically upheld the section of the Act that prohibits the distribution of obscene matter to minors. Fourth, obscenity is a dangerous and effective tool in the hands of sexual predators.