Editorial Board

Iowa State Daily

American citizens’ right to free speech is being infringed upon again. Politicians are overhauling the nation’s telecommunications laws and one anti-smut measure is being considered, among other things, to restrict children’s access to “indecent” or pornographic material on television and computers.

However, there are already laws restricting people from dealing in child pornography and other things of an obviously abusive nature. So long as what’s being distributed or discussed occurs between fully consenting adults, people have a right to make their own decisions about whether such material is for them.

Unfortunately, the Senate apparently disagrees, having recently voted overwhelmingly to ban “obscene or indecent” on computer services and the Internet.

While the courts have permitted indecent speech to be regulated in the interests of children, an outright ban on all so-called “indecent” material goes too far. A system of required warnings like those already used by the major on-line service companies would be more appropriate.

The only thing our politicians will accomplish by this measure is the suppression of our First Amendment rights and the invasion into the private lives of the very citizens our government is trying to protect.