Relates to protecting minors from exposure to obscene materials

BILL NUMBER:S2256

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law and the general business law, in relation to increasing protection for minors from exposure to obscene materials

Purpose

To increase the age at which young persons may be legally exposed to obscene materials and to protect young employees from such exposure.

Summary of provisions

The bill amends 235.20 of the penal law by raising the legal age at which young persons may be legally exposed to obscene materials from 18 to 21 years of age. The bill also creates a new article 29-JJ of the general business law which prohibits retailers from employing persons under 21 years of age to participate in the sale of obscene materials.

Justification

While the United States has a long and honored tradition of protecting freedom of speech, every society has to agree to reasonable and considered limits on that speech. Similar to the classic example used by Justice Louis Brandels which prohibited a citizen from yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, pornography is a type of speech which has to have clear and enforceable limitations on its exposure to certain populations. Pornography depicts graphic and sexually explicit images which mostly feature the subordination of people. Some men are depicted as subordinate but most often women are the ones in these degrading roles. Pornography presents people in a dehumanized manner, often as sexual objects, things or commodities. Often people are depicted as enjoying pain or humiliation, or they are presented as experiencing sexual pleasure in being forcibly raped. In pornography people are often presented in postures of sexual submission and servility who are tied up, cut up, mutilated, bruised or physically hurt. This bill would shield young people from exposure to materials in which people, and mostly women, are presented in scenarios of degradation, injury, torture, or are shown as filthy or inferior. There is extensive academic research which suggests that such dehumanizing pornography causes measurable harm toward women. While this bill does not attempt to outlaw pornography -- it does attempt to increase protections for young populations who may be the people most influenced by such material.

Fiscal impact to state and local governments

None.

Effective date

One hundred and eighty days after it shall have become a law.