Paris Adult Theatre v. Slaton District Attorney

The first documented protest of a motion picture occurred on 28 April 1894--exactly two weeks after Thomas Edison conducted his first public demonstration of the kinetoscope, an early device for viewing motion pictures.

Since the 1930s, Hollywood has--with varying degrees of commitment--abided by voluntary codes regarding acceptable and unacceptable types of films. Television, because it is available to anyone with access to a TV set, has even more strict standards, and in the 1990s it adopted a ratings system not unlike that which governs motion pictures. Meanwhile, as America moved into the twenty-first century, legislators and civil libertarians debated regulation of the Internet.

But when does regulation become censorship? Certainly most people would agree that it is improper to expose a minor to scenes of explicit sex or violence; however, efforts at regulation could result in preventing adults from gaining access to a particular movie, program, or Web site. Which is a more important liberty: the right of adults to be adults, or the right of children to remain children? Many are concerned that the authorities use sex or violence as an excuse to ban a movie they find objectionable for ideological reasons. Conversely, some fear that filmmakers cynically use tacked-on "messages" to justify cinematic orgies.