Not in Front of the Children: "Indecency," Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth

Blurb

Not in Front of the Children: "Indecency," Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth is a non-fiction book by attorney and civil libertarian Marjorie Heins about freedom of speech and the relationship between censorship and the "think of the children" argument. The book presents a chronological history of censorship from Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and the Middle Ages to the present. It discusses notable censored works, including Ulysses by James Joyce, Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence and the seven dirty words monologue by comedian George Carlin. Heins discusses censorship aimed at youth in the United States through recent legislation, including the Children's Internet Protection Act and the Communications Decency Act.
The author explores the question of whether children and adolescents are negatively impacted by exposure to media deemed inappropriate by adults, arguing that youths are not endangered by sexually-explicit material. Heins asserts that there is no simple tactic by which the government can censor material from children without violating rights guaranteed adults by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.