The obscenity test is based on community standards, and as our culture continues to decline and standards of morality continue to decline, and as hard-core pornography becomes much more accessible, more and more people see it [and] it’s harder to get prosecutions undertaken … [They don’t] recognize that where prosecutors have been successful in impacting the availability of pornography through obscenity laws, the rape rate drops. The main thing we need to do is protect our children by making parents aware that [cyberporn] is out there. You can no more leave your children alone to travel the information superhighway than you can leave them alone in Times Square in New York City … You’ve got to supervise your children when they’re on a computer system.
Predictor: Munsil, Len
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “The Information Revolution,” edited by Donald Altschiller, carries a reprint of Sept. 12 1994, Christianity Today article “The Naked City” by John Zipperer. Zipperer discusses the growth of pornography on the Internet and the methods parents employ to combat it. The article contains an interview with Len Munsil, executive director of Phoenix-based National Family Legal Foundation. Zipperer writes: ”‘I think we’re seeing a shift,’ says Len Munsil, executive director of Phoenix-based National Family Legal Foundation. ‘The obscenity test is based on community standards, and as our culture continues to decline and standards of morality continue to decline, and as hard-core pornography becomes much more accessible, more and more people see it [and] it’s harder to get prosecutions undertaken.’ Munsil does not believe it is more difficult to obtain convictions. However, he says it is tougher to get prosecutors ‘to do anything about the problem or for people even to recognize that it is a problem.’ He complains that prosecutors adhere to an ‘absolutist’ view of the First Amendment and without public pressure are unlikely to declare war against smut. ‘Lawyers who end up as prosecutors… begin to think [porn] is really not much of a problem – “these laws are just an anachronism, and we’ll just prosecute these other things,”‘ Munsil says. They don’t ‘recognize that where prosecutors have been successful in impacting the availability of pornography through obscenity laws, the rape rate drops. The main thing we need to do is protect our children by making parents aware that [cyberporn] is out there. You can no more leave your children alone to travel the information superhighway than you can leave them alone in Times Square in New York City … You’ve got to supervise your children when they’re on a computer system.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Pornography
Name of publication: The Information Revolution (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: The Naked City
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 218, 224
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne