From Huckleberry Finn to Harry Potter, from Internet filters to the v-chip, censorship exercised on behalf of children and adolescents is often based on the assumption that they must be protected from “indecent” information that might harm their development—whether in art, in literature, or on a Web site. But where does this assumption come from, and is it true?
In Not in Front of the Children, Marjorie Heins explores the fascinating history of “indecency” laws and other restrictions aimed at protecting youth. From Plato’s argument for rigid censorship, through Victorian laws aimed at repressing libidinous thoughts, to contemporary battles over sex education in public schools and violence in the media, Heins guides us through what became, and remains, an ideological minefield. With fascinating examples drawn from around the globe, she suggests that the “harm to minors” argument rests on shaky foundations.
Marjorie Heins is a civil liberties lawyer, writer, and teacher, and the founding director of the Free Expression Policy Project (www.fepproject.org). Her recent book, "Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge," tells of the loyalty investigations and purges of teachers and professors during the McCarthy era, and the Supreme Court's eventual response, recognizing academic freedom as a "special concern of the First Amendment." Her previous book, "Not in Front of the Children," won the American Library Association's 2002 Eli Oboler Award for best published work in the field of intellectual freedom. In the 1990s, she directed the Arts Censorship Project at the ACLU; she has also been a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and the Frederic Ewen Center for Academic Freedom.
