Censorship of Sex & Violence
Censor Laws, Civil Liberties, Art, Movies, Internet, Pornography

'There is hardly another area in human biology or in sociology in which the scientist has had to fight for his right to do research, as he has when he has attempted to acquire a scientific understanding of human sexual behavior.' (Alfred Kinsey, from papers found after his death)

Pornography and Censorship: Definition & Debate. Liberals, Feminists & Religious Conservatives

'Can a government legitimately prohibit citizens from publishing or viewing pornography, or would this be an unjustified violation of basic freedoms?
This question lies at the heart of a debate that raises fundamental issues about just when, and on what grounds, the state is justified in using its coercive powers to limit the freedom of individuals.'

Read more: Pornography and Censorship: Definition & Debate. Liberals, Feminists & Religious Conservatives

Pornographic Images, Crimes, Censorship & the Law

What is the relationship between viewing pornography and committing sex crimes? How does pornography affect the mind, body, relationships, the perception of women in society? An academic essay which explores these ideas.

Read More: Pornographic Images, Crimes, Attitudes towards Women, Censorship and the Law

U.S. Free Speech: First Amendment Protects Online Porn

Business was booming for the online adult industry in 1996 when President Bill Clinton signed a bill threatening the future of the cybercenterfold phenomena. Called the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the law made it a felony offense to use the Internet for display or transmission of indecent material that could be seen by a minor. It was Congress' first attempt to regulate online pornographers, and the outcome foreshadowed a second attempt two years later.
Clinton had barely affixed his signature before the American Civil Liberties Union and American Library Association sued to block the CDA. A three-judge federal panel in Philadelphia said the law undermined free speech rights and ruled it unconstitutional. Undaunted, Congress tried again.

Read More: U.S. Civil Liberties: First Amendment Protects Online Porn

The Obscenity Law, 1857

The Obscene Publications Act was introduced in September 1857 by Lord Campbell, the Lord Chief Justice. Before this, the only law against sexually explicit material was King George III's 1787 Royal Proclamation 'For the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for the Preventing and Punishing of Vice, Profaneness and Immorality'.

One of the chief opponents of the Act was Lord Lyndhurst. "... but what is the interpretation which is to be put upon the word 'obscene?' I can easily conceive that two men will come to entirely different conclusions as to its meaning." He ridiculed the Act, attempting to persuade his peers to imagine the enforcement of the Act, but it did no good, and the Act was passed.

Lord Campbell stressed that the Act was "... intended to apply exclusively to works written for the single purpose of corrupting the morals of youth, and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind." The Act allows police to search premises, but not people, where such publications are on sale, and Customs Officers and Post Office officials to destroy consignments, and to prosecute offenders.

Major amendments to Act:

1954 - Convictions would not occur if the publication could be proved to be 'in the interests of science, literature, art or learning'.
1964 - The Act now covered wholesalers, or any person having an obscene article for publication for gain.
1977 - Erotic films were now covered as well as written material.
1994 - The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 carried an amendment to the Act that covered computer images.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A679016

Analyse any human emotion, no matter how far it may be removed from the sphere of sex, and you are sure to discover somewhere the primal impulse, to which life owes its perpetuation. ... The primitive stages can always be re-established; the primitive mind is, in the fullest meaning of the word, imperishable. ... Mans most disagreeable habits and idiosyncrasies, his deceit, his cowardice, his lack of reverence, are engendered by his incomplete adjustment to a complicated civilisation. It is the result of the conflict between our instincts and our culture. (Sigmund Freud)

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