State Code defines obscene matter as anything an average person believes depicts or describes sexually explicit conduct, nudity, sex or certain bodily functions; or anything a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. According to State Code 61-8A-2, any adult who knowingly and intentionally displays obscene matter to a minor could be charged with a felony, fined up to $25,000 and face up to five years in prison if convicted.
You gotta love when they say “average” or “reasonable”. Average people can judge their own lives, reasonable people can talk about subjects they are interested and have studied in some capacity, a random person who wouldn’t be asked to decide if a work has any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value in normal circumstances can’t be an arbiter of the law.
Honest question: what is so dangerous about children seeing nudity / sex in media? I understand that it could skew their perception of what reality is like, but I think a good book is often better at realistically depicting this kind of stuff than what they would find on the internet when the legal sources have dried up.
If they know what it is, they can identify what is happening if some of these adults behind this movement are trying to take advantage of them. With a fifth of the state population meeting the definition for illiteracy and the whole of it being #47 for education in the country, it’s not exactly surprising that the voters (writ large) aren’t familiar enough with how libraries work to prevent being duped into supporting this.
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