Hyde Proposes Barring Kids
from Explicit Material in Any Format
The American Civil Liberties Union is closely eyeing a proposal by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) to keep kids away from any material that contains explicit sexual or violent content. The bill, which as of June 10 was being packaged as an amendment to the juvenile justice bill scheduled for fast-track House consideration, addresses only interstate or foreign sales. Still, ACLU legislative analyst Terri Schroder fears that “Museums, libraries, schools, all sorts of institutions could really be in jeopardy,” according to a June 11 Associated Press story.
The revised bill would forbid kids from buying “any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, video game, motion picture film, or similar visual representation or image, book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter, or sound recording, or other matter of any kind.” Some provisions are expected to surface in other legislation.
Declaring that “No one’s for obscenity,” Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) expressed concerns about the bill’s breadth nonetheless. “Some of the very people who advocate the Second Amendment have a bigger eraser for the First.”
Posted June 14, 1999.
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