Pornography has been the target of a spate of legislative and judicial actions taken in recent weeks. Just before Congress adjourned for its August recess, the Senate passed an amendment ensuring serious punishment for child-pornography offenses. If adopted, the Helms-Thurmond Amendment to a treasury-and postal-appropriations bill would strengthen the penalties leveled against those convicted of receipt, transportation, and possession of child pornography.
Sponsors say the measure is crucial because of new guidelines issued by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Those proposed guidelines would lower the penalty for receipt and transportation of child pornography, so that in many cases those convicted would receive only probation. Unless Congress acts, the guidelines will go into effect November 1. A conference committee will take up the amendment later this month during their efforts to reconcile differing versions of the appropriations bill.
“If this [amendment] doesn’t go through, child-porn prosecutions are finished,” said Deen Kaplan, vice-president of public policy for the National Coalition Against Pornography (NCAP). “You’re not going to find U.S. attorneys or other federal law-enforcement officials who are going to make significant effort … if the best they can get out of it is a slap on the wrists.”
Also before it recessed, the Senate granted a hearing to the “Pornography Victims’ Compensation Act,” which would allow plaintiffs to sue the producers, distributors, and sellers of pornographic material that has been shown to have incited sexual crimes. In explaining the bill, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Ia.), chief sponsor of the measure, said, “Our Supreme Court decided long ago that obscenity and child pornography are not protected under the First Amendment, and that there can be criminal penalites for committing such wrongs. Now, our bill simply says, ‘let’s make them give something back to victims too.’ ”
In a separate development, last month a federal jury decided to seize more than $10 million in assets from one of the nation’s largest purveyors of X-rated videos. Observers say this is the first time such a seizure was made under new federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) obscenity laws.
“This is the first of a ton of cases coming up that will strike at the core of the ‘mainstream’ pornography industry,” said NCAP’s Kaplan. Kaplan added that he is optimistic the Bush administration may soon be proposing new initiatives in the fight against pornography, possibly as early as next month, when the President is an invited speaker at the group’s convention in Washington, D.C.
Teen Sex Study Halted
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Louis Sullivan has quashed a proposed federal study on the sexual attitudes and practices of teenagers. The $18 million survey, a project of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, would have targeted children in grades 7 to 11 with explicit questions about their participation in sexual activities, according to information obtained by Rep. William Dannemayer (R-Calif.).
Sullivan’s office said that the secretary was unaware of the federal study until a coalition of conservative profamily groups, which included the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, and Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, raised questions about it.
