online pornography
Pro-Porn Rulings Put Children
in Danger
By Charlene Israel
CBN News Producer
CBN.com –
(CBN News) - Freedom of speech is a protected right of every citizen
of the United States of America, but are commercial pornographers
hiding behind free speech to infringe on the rights of the young
and innocent?
Eighteen-year-old Janell is just like any other Internet-savvy
teenager, but when she posted a normal picture of herself on a
seemingly innocent Web site, she saw more than what she wanted.
Janell commented, “It would be like, oh my gosh, I don't
need to see that…girls who don't have much on and guys without
shirts."
The site that Janell logged onto requires that you post a picture
of yourself so that others who visit the site can view it and
rate your looks.
But Janell says that good ratings for her appearance soon turned
into requests for pornographic photos.
"Sometimes they'd ask for more pictures, and they'd make
it short and to the point – ‘do you have more pictures
-- are they naked?’" Janell said.
As a Christian, Janell's mother Mindy was not too happy about
her daughter submitting her photo online, but she was outraged
at how pornographers took advantage of what appeared to be an
innocent request for a picture.
"There are sites that hook young people into an attitude
of viewing themselves, communicating in a seductive way that only
feeds into the deeper, darker stuff," Mindy said.
Pornography, including child pornography, has become one of the
most dominant features of the Internet. But pornography was a
growing national problem decades before the Internet came along.
So what opened the floodgates for it in America?
The battle over pornography has often been fought for decades
in courtrooms across this country, with some cases going all the
way to the Supreme Court.
A 1964 case produced one of the most famous rulings - when Justice
Potter Stewart tried to explain hard-core pornography by saying
he couldn't necessarily define it, but... “I know it when
I see it..."
Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)
said that case was only one of many important rulings that have
contributed to the growth of porn in America.
"It's hard to pin it on any one case,” Sekulow remarked,
“because there's been so many that have impacted the development
of the law of pornography and obscenity."
More recently, in cases involving Internet porn, the high court
has ruled in favor of commercial pornographers - pointing to the
Constitution's guarantee of free speech.
Sekulow explained, "The court has taken this view of pornography
that somehow it’s entitled to minimal - at least that's
what they call it - constitutional protection. It used to be thought
that if something was obscene or pornographic, it could be regulated
out of existence, but that's not the way the court views it anymore."
In one important case last year, the Supreme Court struck down
a law aimed at shielding kids from Internet porn. The Child Online
Protection Act, or "COPA," would have imposed jail time
for those who made pornography too accessible to kids over the
Internet.
But the court ruled that the law cramped the free speech rights
of adults to see and buy what they want.
Liberal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
praised the ruling. "The ruling today makes it safe for artists
and sex educators and online magazines to discuss sexuality without
the risk of jail time," commented ACLU spokesperson Ann Beeson.
Congressman Michael Oxley (R-OH), who co-sponsored COPA, says
the real losers in this case were the parents and children of
this country.
Oxley said, "I think the ruling was wrong. Ultimately, our
goal as legislators was to protect children..."
And Sekulow questioned the reasoning behind the ruling. "If
a minor were to go to a store and ask for the adult-oriented magazine
behind the counter, they're going to verify to make sure that
child is someone of adult age 18 or over. You would think the
same thing applied to the Internet, but the court gave it a pass
-- and basically said it was unconstitutional. This was shocking
to many,” Sekulow stated.
The court also said that Internet filtering software was an effective
alternative to banning online porn.
Young Internet users like Janell say some porn sites slip pass
the filters. “They say that they have safeguards where it
says, you know, ‘Are you 18?’ You click that even
if you're not. How are they going to know? -- they're not looking
at your birth certificate to see if you're really 18," Janell
said.
In another case in 2002, the Supreme Court refused to outlaw
virtual porn - where computer-generated children, indistinguishable
from real kids, can be put into virtually any and all kinds of
x-rated situations. The court said the ban would violate the First
Amendment's protection of free speech.
Martha Coolidge, president of the Directors Guild, applauded
the ruling, calling it a triumph for creative freedom. "We
can all thank the Supreme Court for once again defending the First
Amendment freedoms central to our free society, and preserving
the creative freedoms that all Americans treasure. Every American
would suffer the loss of freedom if this overzealous governmental
intrusion into our rights of expression had been allowed to stand,"
Coolidge said.
But Oxley said the issue of protecting kids from Internet porn
is not dead, and is sure to come before the Supreme Court again.
"I think that this is a real test case,” Oxley said,
“as to whether the court will acknowledge that Congress
does have a role in protecting children against Internet pornography.
And if the decision is no, then it seems to me that we can safely
say that the rights of pornographers on free speech grounds transcend
the rights of parents to protect their children from this terrible
stuff on the Internet, and that would be a sad day in American
jurisprudence."
Concerned parents like Mindy agree. "If things do not change
in this arena, on this issue in our country, we're going to lose
kids more innocence that we care to dream, at this point,"
she cautioned.
As for Janell, she says she has learned a valuable lesson: "Don't
get sucked into that,” she warns kids, “don't even
click on anything you think is innocent. I mean, unless you know
exactly where you're going, don't even surf for certain things,
unless you have a certain address. It's so easy."
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