Three out of four Americans support the vigorous enforcement of federal obscenity laws, according to a recent survey by the Morality in Media.
Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, said Americans are not accepting of pornography — despite what the mainstream media present.
“Just because there’s a lot of pornography around doesn’t mean the American people accept it," he said.
The poll results were released on the heels of the most recent federal obscenity charges. The U.S. Department of Justice announced this week the indictment of a California resident on charges of operating an obscenity-distribution business and other offenses.
Pornography distributor John Stagliano and two of his companies were charged by a federal grand jury with multiple counts of selling and distributing obscene films to the public. If convicted, Stagliano faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each obscenity count. The corporations face a maximum fine of $500,000 per count.
Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for media and sexuality at Focus on the Family Action, said he was pleased by the indictment but concerned about the type of material being targeted.
"Early indications lead us to believe this material is once again the 'worst of the worst,’” he said. “The Justice Department does nothing to stop the mainstreaming of pornography by only prosecuting material at the extreme edge of society."
Peters agreed that this case is good news, but said there haven't been enough obscenity prosecutions to make a difference.
“The case is an important obscenity case, but standing alone it isn’t going to stem the tide of obscenity,” he said. “They’ve just got to do more cases, or the pornographers are going to win.”
Weiss noted this is just the third federal obscenity case in a year — a pace that does little to stop the proliferation of illegal pornography.
