What is Considered Obscenity

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Introduction Governments have always had a problem with regulating certain activities performed by their citizens. Some are not as difficult to control while others are quite impossible. Especially, when one is trying to regulate something that is not clearly defined as to what is right or wrong. In some instances trying to regulate something that seems to be immoral can be against certain engraved rights the offenders have. A huge problem in our nation and in others as well is the presence obscenity. The problem occurs from the very start in trying to define such a word and more the less trying to regulate it without violating certain rights. My intentions in this paper are to define obscenity using various attempted definitions. Furthermore, I will focus largely on what actions are being taken to control such obscenity from reaching the hands of unwanted recipients and most importantly children. Definition of Obscenity When a person does not know a definition or description of a word they can easily look it up in the dictionary and get a sense of what the definition is. To whom do the definitions apply found in the dictionary? A simple word like photograph can be easily defined as “An image, especially a positive print, recorded by a camera and reproduced on a photosensitive surface.” (yahoo dictionary). With that definition there isn’t much controversy or arguments as to what is considered a photograph. It is simple and self explanatory. What if we place the word obscene before photograph? Now the definition is open to interpretation of each individual. The American Heritage dictionary defines the word obscene as; 1. Offensive to accepted standards of decency or modesty. 2. Inciting lustful feelings; lewd. To my understanding, it seems the descriptive words used in defining obscene are all abstract-opinionated words. Little to my

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