Understanding Obscenity vs. Indecency: Legal Definitions and Implications (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Okay, so for everyone who's watching, let's address some things right now. First off, my name is Chelsea General and thank you for viewing my video journal. But to the matter. There is a difference between obscenity and indecency. This is majorly important. I mean like huge. So pay close attention. What is obscenity? Well, it's illegal for one thing. According to electronic media law by Roger L. Sadler, any material found to be obscene is not protected under the First Amendment law and may be censored speech. It became more conclusive in the 1970s. The Miller versus California case in 1973 was a landmark decision defining obscenity by law. A man named Marvin Miller was convicted of mass mailing advertisements to sell obscene material through books and brochures that explicitly display sexual content. The Supreme Court upheld Miller's conviction while also modifying the test for obscenity established in Roth versus United States in 1957. They ruled that obscene material is if an average person applying community standards sees the work as a whole appeals to prurient interests. Prurient meaning urging or lustful thoughts. It also defined obscenity depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way. Patently refers to descriptions of masturbation or executory functions. And thirdly, obscene material lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value. Does this mean that you don't have the right to own sexual content that may be seen as obscene? No, it's legal to own obscene work. The Supreme Court decided in 1969's Stanley versus Georgia ruling that people have the right to possess obscene material in the privacy of their homes. However, still knowingly distributing and transporting the material is not legal. Why not? Authors, musicians, and producers do all the time through books, movies, and songs. It is not illegal to produce or perform sexual expressions as long as your material can be proven to provide some type of literary, artistic, political, or scientific value you may express in the manner you please. For example, in the 1992 Luke Records versus Navarro, an appeals court overturned the ruling of obscenity against the Two Live Crew album recording as nasty as they want to be because the group was able to provide expert testimonials and evidence determining the lapse value. Okay, so here's the difference. Indecency has protection under the First Amendment. It isn't seen as offensive or graphic, but it is intended to protect children from getting access to sexually explicit material while still allowing adult access. The definition of indecency is that it is a violation of the law The definition of indecency came from the 1978 Supreme Court case FCC versus Pacifica. Pacifica radio station aired a 12-minute monologue entitled Filthy Words by George Carlin featuring the seven dirty words not allowed on radio and TV. A man riding with his 15-year-old son happened to tune into the program and wrote a letter to the FCC complaining about the language in the program. They then provided a new definition of indecency which is still used today. Indecent material depicts or describes patently offensive, measured in whole community standards of a broadcast medium, sexual excretory organs at times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience. The indecency definition at one point only applied to public airwaves and broadcasted material. This didn't include phones, cable TV, satellite, or the internet. Although there were many challenges towards cyberspace and adult sites that were easily accessible to children. This led to past government regulations such as the Communication Decency Act in 1996, the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, and now the current standing Children's Internet Protection Act from 2003. Okay so now we can evidently see the differences in obscenity and indecency. How explicit sexual material or simple verbal vulgar language as the two live crew used may be argued obscene or not obscene under the three-pronged Miller test in which if it is found obscene it's not protected under the law. In contrast, indecent material serves in the best interest of children while also trying to protect adult freedoms. So thanks for watching.