children accessing porn; adults turning off filterware

[Mark Wilden]

>  A better but not perfect phrase would be "what are the social
> side-effects of such access?  What are the trends that emerge from
> studies about childhood exposure to pornography.

But this is why I'm talking about free speech. There are some governments which believe that
exposing its citizens to anti-government opinion has bad side-effects, so they prohibit it. A
basic concomitant of free speech is that some of us will think some of it is harmful. Personally,
I'd rather not have my son exposed to religious proselytizing, but I certainly wouldn't ask the
local library to filter such material.

Not all speech is protected, of course. But pornography is. And if it should be allowed to be
"spoken" it should be allowed to be listened to. The First Amendment includes no age limit.