When Real Thought Trumps Virtual Pornography

Last week I was puzzled by the use of the term “virtual pornography” in a CNN piece about a man who photo shopped young girls faces on to naked adult women’s bodies.

After reading Wendy Kaminer’s concise and worrisome warning about the potential legal implications of this case I feel a bit myopic in my concerns. Kaminer discusses the virtual porn case along with another involving a convicted sex offender who was imprisoned for talking about the sexual abuse of children. Kaminer argues that these cases, along with some Supreme Court rulings, have important implications not only for free speech, but free thought. It’s well worth reading.

It’s hard to write about this stuff when you know it can be read as if you’re defending speech that’s so heinous (at least it’s hard for me). As Kaminer says, few people will lose sleep over losing the right to discuss abusing children. And it’s hard for those of us who aren’t lawyers or legal scholars to know how much of this hand wringing is justified.

But I hope I’ll never be so complacent that I’ll pass over something about criminalizing thought and not take a second to read more.

Read more – The Atlantic: Child Porn, Animal Cruelty Porn, and the Right to Imagine

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