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BILL NUMBER:S2256

TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the penal law and the general business law, in relation to increasing protection for minors from exposure to obscene materials

PURPOSE: To increase the age at which young persons may be legally exposed to obscene materials and to protect young employees from such exposure.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS: The bill amends 235.20 of the penal law by raising the legal age at which young persons may be legally exposed to obscene materials from 18 to 21 years of age. The bill also creates a new article 29-JJ of the general business law which prohibits retailers from employing persons under 21 years of age to participate in the sale of obscene materials.

JUSTIFICATION: While the United States has a long and honored tradition of protecting freedom of speech, every society has to agree to reasonable and considered limits on that speech. Similar to the classic example used by Justice Louis Brandels which prohibited a citizen from yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, pornography is a type of speech which has to have clear and enforceable limitations on its exposure to certain populations. Pornography depicts graphic and sexually explicit images which mostly feature the subordination of people. Some men are depicted as subordinate but most often women are the ones in these degrading roles. Pornography presents people in a dehumanized manner, often as sexual objects, things or commodities. Often people are depicted as enjoying pain or humiliation, or they are presented as experiencing sexual pleasure in being forcibly raped. In pornography people are often presented in postures of sexual submission and servility who are tied up, cut up, mutilated, bruised or physically hurt. This bill would shield young people from exposure to materials in which people, and mostly women, are presented in scenarios of degradation, injury, torture, or are shown as filthy or inferior. There is extensive academic research which suggests that such dehumanizing pornography causes measurable harm toward women. While this bill does not attempt to outlaw pornography -- it does attempt to increase protections for young populations who may be the people most influenced by such material.

FISCAL IMPACT TO STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: None.

EFFECTIVE DATE: One hundred and eighty days after it shall have become a law.

Text

STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________

2256

2011-2012 Regular Sessions

IN SENATE

January 18, 2011
___________

Introduced  by  Sen.  KRUGER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
  printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes

AN ACT to amend the penal law and the general business law, in  relation
  to increasing protection for minors from exposure to obscene materials

  THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 235.20 of the penal law, as  added
by chapter 791 of the laws of 1967, is amended to read as follows:
  1.    "Minor"  means any person less than [seventeen] TWENTY-ONE years
old.
  S 2. The general business law is amended by adding a new article 29-JJ
to read as follows:
                               ARTICLE 29-JJ
                  EMPLOYEE EXPOSURE TO OBSCENE MATERIAL
SECTION 613. DEFINITIONS.
        614. RETAIL SALE OF OBSCENE MATERIALS AND EMPLOYEE PROTECTION.
  S 613. DEFINITIONS.  AS USED IN THIS ARTICLE THE FOLLOWING TERMS SHALL
HAVE THE FOLLOWING MEANINGS:
  1. "OBSCENE." ANY MATERIAL IS "OBSCENE" IF  (A)  THE  AVERAGE  PERSON,
APPLYING  CONTEMPORARY  COMMUNITY STANDARDS, WOULD FIND THAT, CONSIDERED
AS A WHOLE, ITS PREDOMINANT APPEAL IS TO THE PRURIENT INTEREST  IN  SEX,
AND  (B)  IT DEPICTS OR DESCRIBES IN A PATENTLY OFFENSIVE MANNER, ACTUAL
OR SIMULATED: SEXUAL INTERCOURSE, SODOMY, SEXUAL  BESTIALITY,  MASTURBA-
TION,  SADISM,  MASOCHISM, EXCRETION OR LEWD EXHIBITION OF THE GENITALS,
AND (C) CONSIDERED AS A WHOLE,  IT  LACKS  SERIOUS  LITERARY,  ARTISTIC,
POLITICAL, AND SCIENTIFIC VALUE. PREDOMINANT APPEAL SHALL BE JUDGED WITH
REFERENCE TO ORDINARY ADULTS UNLESS IT APPEARS FROM THE CHARACTER OF THE
MATERIAL  OR  THE  CIRCUMSTANCES OF ITS DISSEMINATION TO BE DESIGNED FOR
CHILDREN OR OTHER SPECIALLY SUSCEPTIBLE AUDIENCE.
  2. "MINOR" MEANS ANY PERSON LESS THAN TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD.

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD07043-01-1
S. 2256                             2

  3. "MATERIALS" MEANS ANYTHING TANGIBLE WHICH IS CAPABLE OF BEING  USED
OR  ADAPTED  TO  AROUSE INTEREST, WHETHER THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF READING,
OBSERVATION, SOUND OR IN ANY OTHER MANNER.
  S  614.  RETAIL SALE OF OBSCENE MATERIALS AND EMPLOYEE PROTECTION.  1.
NO PERSON, INDIVIDUAL, PARTNERSHIP, CORPORATION,  ASSOCIATION  OR  OTHER
LEGAL  ENTITY  SHALL EMPLOY ANY MINOR TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RETAIL SALE,
MAILING, DELIVERY, TRANSFER, DISTRIBUTION,  CIRCULATION,  DISSEMINATION,
PRESENTATION, EXHIBITION OR ADVERTISEMENT OF ANY OBSCENE MATERIALS.
  2.  A VIOLATION OF SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION SHALL BE PUNISHABLE
BY A CIVIL PENALTY OF NOT MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS PER VIOLATION.
  S 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
it shall have become a law.