Sexually explicit materials are available on convenience store magazine racks, in video rental shops, through 900 phone lines, from adult bulletin boards, and … on the Internet. Their availability online, particularly to minors with computers and modems, has been one of the most controversial features of the Internet and has also been the principal motivation underlying attempts to regulate and restrict content. In the United States, for example, Senator James Exon of Nebraska brought his “blue book” containing images downloaded from some Usenet newsgroups into the Senate and invited his colleagues to stop to look at them, just when the Senate was about to discuss the Communications Decency Act. The outcome of the debate over the bill was sealed. In 1995, The Senate passed the bill 84–16 to outlaw obscene material online, and imposed fines and prison sentences to anyone who knowingly made indecent material available to children under age 18.

The implications for the Internet and Internet Service Providers were quite far-reaching, but the Senators were in no mood to back down, especially in front of the C-Span cameras. After many changes and compromises, the act was eventually passed by Congress and signed into law, but struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997 as unconstitutional because of its implications for free speech. Yet, its momentum as it traversed the legislative and legal landscapes, and also the worldwide Internet forums, demonstrates how volatile the whole issue of online pornography and sexuality really is.