by Frank Morriss

About the author: Frank Morriss is a contributing editor for the Wanderer, a weekly Catholic newspaper.

The logic that views so little as a spanking as child abuse, but defends the “right” to direct obscene or indecent materials at children via online technology, escapes me. If free speech includes the seduction of children, it is time to discuss the basis and rationale for such freedom.

New Rights for Smut

The truth is that we have arrived at this point of unrestricted expression for public consumption by a process more related to cultural toleration for filth than to genuine development of the law. What would have been considered outside the protection of the common law, national and regional codes of law— and, yes, the U.S. Constitution—as late as a half-century ago, is...