Review of “Virtually Obscene: The Case for an Uncensored Internet”

Review by: Robert Sanfilippo
Book by:  Amy E. White

Virtually Obscene is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of what the Internet is, describing its origin, structure, and various attempts to regulate it. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the current obscenity standards in the United States and discusses the problems therein, while providing the author’s proposals and alternatives to the current standard. Chapter 3 discusses the First Amendment, particularly the freedom of speech clause and the arguments surrounding it, as well as the author’s reasons why freedom of speech does not protect Internet obscenity. Chapters 4, 5, and 6, introduce and analyze the arguments of Internet obscenity and its harm to children, women and the moral environment, respectively. Chapter 7 concludes with a discussion of why Internet obscenity regulation is “a bad idea.”

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