“Obscenity isn’t protected by the First Amendment, but hazy and unenforceable legal definitions have allowed extreme pornography to saturate American society and reach countless children.”
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced a bill that is targeted at banning online pornography in the United States as well as defining what obscenity is in legal terms.
Lee, as well as Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), introduced the bill called the "Interstate Obscenity Definition Act," which, if passed, would make it illegal to transmit obscene material across state lines, making large swaths of pornographic material illegal online.
In a news release from Lee, he said, “Obscenity isn’t protected by the First Amendment, but hazy and unenforceable legal definitions have allowed extreme pornography to saturate American society and reach countless children. Our bill updates the legal definition of obscenity for the internet age so this content can be taken down and its peddlers prosecuted."
Miller also commented on the bill, “The Interstate Obscenity Definition Act equips law enforcement with the tools they need to target and remove obscene material from the internet, which is alarmingly destructive and far outside the bounds of protected free speech under the Constitution. I’m proud to lead this effort in the House with Senator Lee to safeguard American families and ensure this dangerous material is kept out of our homes and off our screens."
The bill will clarify what obscenity means in the modern age, remove ambiguity around the term, and provide a standardized definition of what obscenity is. A Supreme Court case that was ruled on in 1973 made the term subjective as well as vague, Fox News reported.
The bill introduced by Lee and Miller to define obscenity as video and other media that "taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion; (ii) depicts, describes, or represents, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts, or lewd exhibition of the genitals, with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person."
In addition, the definition states that the obscene depiction in question "lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
The definition offered by Lee and Miller's bill defines obscenity in the Communications Act of 1934, which prohibits the transmission of "any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person."
However, the bill proposed by Lee and Miller amends the act by striking through the portion that states "with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person."
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