Moral_Panic

Moral Panic “Protecting Our Children from Internet Smut: Moral Duty or Moral Panic'” Julia Wilkins’ article Protecting our Children from Internet Smut: Moral Duty or Moral Panic' which appeared in the September/October issue of The Humanist is an argument for the idea that the media (epically magazines) fuels unnecessary mass hysteria over issues such as pornography on the internet. Wilkins feels that magazines such as Newsweek and Times have caused the public to worry about children being exposed to pornography via the internet based on incorrect statistics and false studies published by unreliable parties. In her article Wilkins discusses how these publications were taken seriously not only by the general public, but also by important government officials such as Senator Charles Grassley, former Senator James Exon and Senator dan Coats. Grassley used an article from Time magazine called “On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn” to persuade the senate to pass the Protection of Children from Pornography Act of 1995, which made it “illegal for anyone to knowingly or recklessly transmit indecent material to minors.” In 1996 Exon and Coats sponsored the Communications Decency Act, which made it illegal to transmit pornography over the Internet. Wilkins argues that both of these internet, pornography, children, article, moral, find, access, wilkins, very, public, exposed, credit, card, being, time, since, senator, porn, panic, net, material, looking, inappropriate, been, , worry, while, way, viewing, untrue, transmit, solution, smut, simply, schmeiser