Efforts to limit kids' exposure to online porn fail
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By COREY TAULE
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ctaule@postregister.com
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Bonneville County doesn't have an adult video store. Local officials essentially stamped them out by forcing adult shops to set up at least 2,500 feet from schools and churches. As instructed by the Supreme Court more than 30 years ago, this community set its own standards: Those don't include the distribution of adult materials. State law prohibits the distribution of obscene material or performances to minors. Selling an adult magazine or video to a kid is illegal. But the laws are archaic, anti-porn advocates say. Magazines and videos aren't the thing anymore. Cable television packages come with adult pay-per-view channels. And the Internet has flooded the very homes that local and state government officials hoped to protect with a tidal wave of material that makes Hustler magazine and most adult videos appear tame. Those in the porn industry say it's a parent's job to keep their kids from viewing online porn. Anti-porn advocates say that's true, but also that society has a part to play. Minors can't smoke Marlboros or drink rum. Kids can't drive until they reach a certain age. But congressional efforts to limit children's access to online porn have failed in the courts. And local prosecutors say they're helpless to do anything about a Web site that's created in California, or Kiev, and ends up on a 12-year-old's computer in Iona. "You have to have an identifiable victim," said Bruce Pickett, a Bonneville County deputy prosecutor. "You have to have an identifiable defendant. It's a federal problem just because we can't legislate commerce around the country."
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