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529US3

Unit: $U60

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UNITED STATES v. PLAYBOY ENTERTAINMENT
GROUP, INC.
Breyer, J., dissenting

gives parents the power to tell cable operators to keep any
channel out of their home. Section 505 does more. Unless
parents explicitly consent,
it inhibits the transmission of
adult cable channels to children whose parents may be un-
aware of what they are watching, whose parents cannot eas-
ily supervise television viewing habits, whose parents do not
know of their § 504 “opt-out” rights, or whose parents are
simply unavailable at critical times.
In this respect, § 505
serves the same interests as the laws that deny children ac-
cess to adult cabarets or X-rated movies. E. g., Del. Code
Ann., Tit. 11, § 1365(i)(2) (1995); D. C. Code Ann. § 22–
2001(b)(1)(B) (1996). These laws, and § 505, all act in the
absence of direct parental supervision.

This legislative objective is perfectly legitimate. Where
over 28 million school age children have both parents or their
only parent in the work force, where at least 5 million chil-
dren are left alone at home without supervision each week,
and where children may spend afternoons and evenings
watching television outside of the home with friends, § 505
offers independent protection for a large number of families.
See U. S. Dept. of Education, Ofﬁce of Research and Im-
provement, Bringing Education into the After-School Hours
3 (summer 1999).
I could not disagree more when the ma-
jority implies that the Government’s independent interest in
offering such protection—preventing, say, an 8-year-old child
from watching virulent pornography without parental con-
sent—might not be “compelling.” Ante, at 825. No previ-
ous case in which the protection of children was at issue has
suggested any such thing.
Indeed, they all say precisely the
opposite. See Reno, supra, at 865 (State has an “independ-
ent interest in the well-being of its youth”); Denver Area,
518 U. S., at 743; New York v. Ferber, 458 U. S. 747, 756–757
(1982); Ginsberg, 390 U. S., at 640; Prince v. Massachusetts,
321 U. S. 158, 165 (1944). They make clear that Government
has a compelling interest in helping parents by preventing