In an open
letter to President Obama,
a retired police lieutenant and FBI agent recently addressed a crime virtually ignored in our country, the proliferation
of obscene material on the Internet. After highlighting the devastating effects pornography has on men, women,
and especially children, the writers offer a resource every parent should know about: Morality in Media's
(MIM)
tipline.
Launched in 2002,
www.obscenitycrimes.org gives citizens a tool
to easily report violations of obscenity laws. The web site contains both an online complaint
form for reporting
Internet violations and printable
forms
for "offline" violations such as those committed by video stories, through the US mail system, on satellite or cable
television, etc. MIM then forwards all complaints containing adequate information to the federal Justice Department
and US Attorney Offices. To date, people have submitted more than 77,000 complaints.
1 Despite the number
of reported offenses, the Justice Department and FBI "have not initiated any new adult obscenity cases" since the
2008 presidential election.
2 Hence the letter to President Obama.
While the recent lack of porn prosecution is discouraging, that doesn't mean the war is over or that it's not worth
fighting. In five separate opinion polls commissioned by MIM, between 75 and 82 per cent of adults say they support
enforcement of obscenity laws. We are in the majority. Right now, the federal government is ignoring our complaints,
but presidents come and go. Electing strong, morally responsible leadership can go a long way in battling pornography.
In the meantime, prosecutors are still winning cases on a local level, putting porn distributors behind bars where
they belong.
MIM's obscenity tipline did not exist in 1999 when our son confessed he had stumbled upon an unblocked pornographic
cable channel and become addicted to the obscene images he saw there. If it had, I would have been the first to
sign on and lodge a complaint. Please don't hesitate to report those who take our children captive through pornography.
It is still a crime.
