Pamela Paul: The cost of growing up on porn
Pamela Paul, author of Porn Generation, writing at the Washington Post: “An entire generation is being kept in the dark about pornography’s effects because previous generations can’t grapple with the new reality. Whether by approaching me (at the risk of peer scorn) after I’ve spoken at a university or via anonymous e-mails, young people continue to pass along an unpopular message: Growing up on porn is terrible. One 17-year-old who had given up his habit told me that reading about porn addicts ‘was like reading a horrifying old diary, symptoms, downward spirals, guilt, hypocrisy, lack of control, and the constant question of to what degree fantasy is really so different from reality. I felt like a criminal, or at the very least, a person who would objectively disgust me.’”
Janice Shaw Crouse: What’s wrong with legalizing prostitution?
Janice Shaw Crouse writing at The American Thinker: “Any discussion of prostitution must center on a basic fact: Control and exploitation of another person is slavery. Pimps control 80%-95% of all forms of prostitution. Nearly 70% of those in prostitution entered before age 16. In the U.S., the average age of entry is 12. Twelve!”
Should the obscenity standard for internet speech be national, or local?
FindLaw: “Obscenity law has always had weak underpinnings. Now, due to the advent of the Internet, it may be toppled entirely, if courts truly begin to take seriously the due process and First Amendment problems it raises. If it is not toppled, then significant injustices – like the injustice perpetrated in the Paul Little case – will only continue.”
Internet awash in teen porn
North County Times: “If you place any stock in the veracity of Yahoo search engine statistics, you will discover that close to 50 new Web sites featuring ‘teen porn’ are born on Yahoo every minute of every day, at least for the past month. While this research is strictly unscientific, it speaks to a phenomenon that clearly places people into two distinct camps: those who know that America is awash in teen porn, and those who are firmly in denial.”
Utah leaders warn child pornography may be on the rise
ABC 4: “Utah leaders are worried child pornography crimes in the state are on the rise. Today, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force joined Utah legislators to sound a voice of warning.”
Porn addiction destroys relationships, lives
San Francisco Chronicle: “Millions of Americans struggle with porn addiction for years in secret, without getting caught, and continue their behavior even after it begins to have negative consequences in their life. For some individuals, images are enough, and they remain locked in the fantasy world of pornography. For others, Internet porn is a gateway to compulsive and risky sexual behavior with others.”
PhotoDNA, a new child-pornography tracking technology
The Dartmouth: “PhotoDNA, a new child-pornography tracking technology developed in part by Dartmouth computer science professor Hany Farid, may soon enable Internet service providers to better curb the availability of online images depicting child pornography. The technology was donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in December.”
Cardinal Justin Rigali: The plague of pornography
Catholic Herald Times: “The values that society puts forth and encourages; the removal of morality from schools and public settings; the desire of those who profit from the multi-billion dollar pornography industry to make money; and the collapse of the traditional family with its security and support system all combine to leave children in a very vulnerable state when it comes to pornography. The statistics of the numbers of children and young people who view pornography and the ease with which they do so is truly shocking.”
Courts divide over constitutionality of sex toy bans
FindLaw: “The Supreme Court of Alabama recently upheld a state obscenity law banning the sale or promotion of sex toys. In so holding, the Court agreed with one of the two federal appellate courts to consider the same question in recent cases”
11th Circuit obscenity case tests community standards on the internet
Fulton County Daily Report: “The federal judges who on Thursday heard the appeal of the movie producer, known as Max Hardcore, aren’t being asked to make the same judgments the jury did . . . the judges are being asked to decide some of the heaviest issues in the area of obscenity law, such as whether the government should criminalize adult films purchased over the Internet and viewed in the privacy of the home, and whether a Tampa jury should apply its own mores to materials available all over the country.”
