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So what? I sincerely doubt Hustler sent the magazine to Congress members with the intent to arouse.

In any case, there's no law saying that if I, as an adult, want to get a subscription to the print edition of Hustler magazine, then Hustler is obligated to verify that I am an adult.

Not now, not in the 1970s.

Why should the internet be any different? It's "literally no different."




Transmitting electronic images of nudity to people under 18 years old is already illegal: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/223

Why aren't companies being held liable?

Pornhub should not have more privileges than everyone else.

Look, most states explicitly allow parents showing porn to minors under the guise of education. If you want your kid to view porn... that's your prerogative. But the companies themselves cannot distribute pornography to minors. It is illegal already.


Which has squat all to do with the flaw in your earlier analogy.

You wrote "It's literally no different than the current laws against selling porn to minors physically."

I pointed out that the laws regarding physical stores are different than the laws regarding mail. There is no law requiring me to present identification or other proof of age before I subscribe to a pornographic magazine.

You can't cherry pick the analogy that works best for you, without explaining why other (IMO more) reasonable analogies are invalid.

You pointed to 47 USC § 223 but didn't read it closely enough to figure out it isn't relevant. It requires "a telecommunications device", but that does not include an interactive computer service.

The definitions say "The use of the term “telecommunications device” in this section ... does not include an interactive computer service" and "The term “interactive computer service” has the meaning provided in section 230(f)(2) of this title." where "The term “interactive computer service” means any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server".

Internet companies aren't liable under the law you pointed to for the simple reason that the law doesn't apply to them.


You are not reading the title correctly.

The law explicitly says that anyone who makes an interactive computer service display porn to a minor has broken a law (paragraph (d)). Your 'rebuttal' is based upon only reading (a). Yes, pornhub is not doing anything wrong under (a), but under (d) it clearly is. The owners and producers of pornhub are causing minors to be transmitted porn via an ICS.

Yes, ISPs are not liable because they're just carrying public traffic. But under section (d), even if a minor requests the porn, you cannot serve it to them. Please read it.


While you are correct, you are also not reading it correctly.

(d) refers to "obscene or child pornography".

While some pornography is obscene under US law, in general pornography is "indecent", not obscene.

See Sable Communications of California v. FCC, from when the US tried to regulate dial-a-porn, and the courts decided the original law was overly broad.

Only (b) refers to "indecent communication" (and only in the context of "commercial purposes"), and it specifically requires a telephone.

If I understand the history, that was from the 1989 amendment to the Communications Act of 1934, known as the Helms Amendment, and the courts decided that was sufficiently narrowly tailored to not affect 1st amendment rights (see the court judgement in Dial Information Services v. Thornburgh).

It appears, based on my shallow understanding of the history, that I can set up an automated recording such that if you call it, it plays back a recorded sex chat which is indecent but not obscene. And I can do that without requiring age identification from those who call.

I might have to inform the telephone company that I have done so, so they can let people who opt-out of being able to connect to such numbers from doing so, but otherwise it's my first amendment right.

Which circles us back to yet another analogy which seems more appropriate than your focus on the sale of pornography in physical stores.




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