ObscenityCrimes.org marks first anniversary with over 26,000 reports

Large numbers of children are at risk for being exposed to porn spam

NEWS RELEASE from MORALITY IN MEDIA, Inc.

NEW YORK (24 June 2003) – More than 26,000 times in the last 12 months people have spotted what they believe may be illegal hardcore pornography (obscenity) on the Internet and have reported it to www.obscenitycrimes.org, a Web site Morality in Media (MIM) operates as a hotline for such reports to the Justice Department in Washington and the 93 U.S. Attorneys across the country.

MIM began the operation a year ago, on June 24, 2002, and expects it will lead to prosecutions nationwide under federal Internet obscenity laws (18 USC 1462 and 1465) and thus to a reduction in the amount of illegal obscenity on the Internet and in the amount of “porn spam.” One effective way to reduce the amount of porn spam is to enforce federal Internet obscenity laws (and, in appropriate cases, the RICO-obscenity law) against Web sites that use porn spam to market hardcore pornography.

During April and May 2003, nine out of ten reports (90.4%) submitted to ObscenityCrimes.org involved the receipt of unsolicited porn spam and nearly four out of ten (37.1%) of those reports indicated that children were, or easily could have been, exposed to the porn spam.

MIM President Robert Peters commented:

"Our goal in developing ObscenityCrimes.org was to shorten the distance between citizens, whose homes and places of business have been invaded by Internet obscenity, and federal prosecutors, who are responsible for enforcing federal Internet obscenity laws.

“U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft has said that enforcement of federal obscenity laws is a Justice Department ‘priority.’ Every citizen concerned about the explosion of obscenity on the Internet should bookmark ObscenityCrimes.org on their Web browsers—and make reports.”

MORALITY IN MEDIA is a nonprofit national organization, with headquarters in New York City, working through constitutional means to curb traffic in obscenity and to uphold standards of decency in the mainstream media.