Censhorship
Censorship is justified only when it protects children from potentially harmful information, whether such information be in the form of speech, writing, graphic arts, music, or electronic production. Studies have indicated that pornography can have an antisocial impact on the attitudes and actions of children.
Information that is harmful to children would be any that would facilitate the exploitation of any child. The courts have ruled that Child Pornography is not protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In addition the courts have ruled that a work (for example: a painting or photograph) could have serious artistic value, but still "embody the hardest core of child pornography" (Hudson).
In simpler times community standards and mores determined what should and should not be censored. These simpler times allegedly existed when the U.S. was a largely agrarian society, and societies consisted of small towns where the principal forms of communication were the local newspaper and verbal intercourse. Alas, those times (if they ever really existed) are long past. The telephone, radio, TV, Ipods, cell phones, computers and the dissemination of information via satellite have guaranteed that information of all kinds is at our fingertips. Censorship in a free and open society is virtually impossible so the courts have wisely criminalized child pornography.
Children can be exploited in a number of ways. In the usual long process of maturation the young child, through its five senses, takes in information of all kinds. The cumulative effect of this absorption presumably allows the child to grow into a mature, rational, civilized adult who will take his/her place as a productive member of society.
In U.S.society the law considers any person under the age of 18 an "infant" in the legal sense. This infant is looked upon as an individual only minimally reponsible for his/her acts. This...
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