The Internet has enjoyed explosive growth in recent years, as people worldwide go online in search of information, entertainment, and commerce. No business has benefited more from the online craze than purveyors of pornography. The anonymity of using the Internet has made it the medium of choice for consumers of adult material. The pervasiveness of pornography in cyberspace has prompted many American lawmakers to call for limitations or even an outright ban of such material. In this paper, I will argue that any attempts to ban pornography on the Internet are unwise, unworkable, and unconstitutional.
Those who would censor pornography on the Internet cite several reasons. First and foremost, they want to protect children, who will be harmed by continued exposure to pornography at a young age. Proponents of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), a law that regulated indecent material on the Internet but which the Supreme Court invalidated in 1997, argued that no parent, even the most liberal parent, wants their child exposed to this material at too young of an age. Children are too young to understand such material, and overexposure may condition them to associate explicit photographs with stimulation. As a result, they may be unable to form normal, healthy relationships as adults (Enough Is Enough 6).
I agree that children should not be exposed to pornographic material. Sexual images are simply too provocative and confusing for a child, and they impair the natural process of development. (However, I find many of the harms cited by anti-pornography forces—basically, every evil in the world today is caused by pornography—to be dubious at best.) Since almost everybody agrees that children should not be looking at adult material, the issue becomes one of means, not ends. What is the best way to prevent children from accessing pornographic images on the Internet without infringing on the rights of adults to access thos...