This presentation will address the need to enforce federal obscenity laws, which currently prohibit distribution of obscene material (hardcore pornography) through the Internet, through cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TVs, in retail shops, through the mail, or by common carrier. The U. S. Supreme Court has always held that the distribution of obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment. The Court has developed a very workable and understandable three-part test to be used in obscenity prosecutions. When obscenity laws have been enforced, society is improved. The lack of federal prosecutions, however, has been a major contributing factor to the coarsening of our culture, to the climate of sexual violence prevailing in society, to the development of a public health crisis of pornography, and to the prevalence of sex trafficking in America.
This presentation is by Patrick Trueman, President of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and former Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division at the U. S. Department of Justice.
