CDA

[Sheryl Dwinell]

At 08:10 AM 6/27/97 -0700, you wrote:
>At 09:37 PM 6/26/97 -0500, Jim Hurd wrote:
>>
>>	If a libraian tried to keep legally availble information away from
>>my children, I would have a law suit in their face before he/she could say
>>"Jerry Falwell."  You can talk about *your* children, but don't talk about
>>*our* children.  There is no us, pal.   
>
>I find it odd that you want you kids to see porn.  

Read carefully, he said 'legally available information.'  He didn't say he
wanted his kids to see porn. But, maybe he lets his children view material
that YOU may find offensive, but he doesn't.  Besides, do you really want
the feds determining what is porn and what isn't?  Jesse Helms'
interpretation or Ted Kennedy's?  The Family Research Council's or the
People for the American Way? The Supreme Court has already ruled on
obscenity. Right now pornography is legal, protected speech.  There may be
laws restricting the sale of pornographic materials to minors, but as far
as I know it is a local issue, not a federal issue.  If you passed a
federal law aimed solely at the net, wouldn't you have to extend it to
other forms of media to make it constitutional?  In essense you would be
banning the viewing of pornography by any minor in any form, right?  Are
you gonna turn in your neighbors for letting their 12 year old view Playboy
or Hustler?  And, god forbid, the local library's copy of CYBERSitter
doesn't boot up when they turn on their computers and a pack of kids start
logging onto the Playboy web site.  Good luck constructing a law that
passes Constitutional muster. Jim is right, parents need to determine what
is right for their kids and what is not.

On a personal rant: I wish that we (media, public & politicians) could work
up this level of passion and hysteria over children who are starving,
neglected and abused.  These are things that affect many more children than
viewing porn on the Net and scar them much more deeply.



Sheryl Dwinell
Cataloger/Database Management Librarian
Memorial Library * Marquette University
P.O. Box 3141 * Milwaukee, WI 53201-3141
414-288-3542 * dwinells at vms.csd.mu.edu