TOPEKA, KS -- A Shawnee County grand jury has indicted six Topeka area adult stores on multiple charges of promoting obscenity. Indictments were handed down to Sinsations, Adult Entertainment Center, After Dark Video, Some Like it Hot and two Priscilla’s stores. Individuals were not named. In addition to the grand jury charges, Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht said his office would file civil cases against the businesses, their owners and the property. He said the office would seek to have the businesses declared a public nuisance and have an injunction issued that could include padlocking the property for between 90 days and 24 months.

The action follows a fix to the state obscenity statute earlier this year to remedy a feature that had rendered the old law unconstitutional. (See X-Press report, “Lawmakers Seek to Fix Obscenity Statute,” 3/17/06)

The Grand Jury was formed due to the actions of Abilene anti-pornography gadfly Phillip C. Cosby, Paul Barnes, president of Topeka Evangelical Area Ministries and Jan Beemer of Operation Southwind, in accordance with a Kansas law which mandates a grand jury investigation if enough names can be gathered on petitions. (See X-Press report, “Another Grand Jury by Petition Action,” 4/21/06)

Attorney Charlie O’Hara, who represents several of the stores, told Xbiz reporter Matt O’Conner that he will demand a jury trial for his defendants. O’Hara also represents several Wichita area stores that were recently indicted on promoting obscenity charges in a separate matter. His request for a jury trial for the Wichita stores, Circle Cinema and two After Dark stores was granted.

Information is from Barbara Hollingsworth, Topeka Capital-Journal, 8/11/06
And from Matt O’Conner, Xbiz.com, 8/10/06

FBI 2257 INSPECTIONS UPDATE

WASHINGTON, DC -- The FBI is patting itself on the back over getting off to a good start in its inspections of adult entertainment companies for compliance with the federal record-keeping law 18 U.S.C. §2257. Pornographers "expected guns and battering rams, and we came in with suits and pencils," said Chip Burrus, assistant director of criminal investigations at the FBI, in an interview with National Journal’s Technology Daily reporter Andrew Noyes. Burrus refused to provide details. Audit results "are still preliminary," Burrus said. He said producers have been compliant so far.

Information is from Andrew Noyes, National Journal’s Technology Daily, 8/7/06

STUDY RUNS COUNTER TO DOPA BILL CONCEPT

DURHAM, NH -- A recent study conducted by University of New Hampshire researchers for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) compares online youth experiences regarding unwanted exposure to sexual materials, sexual harassment and sexual solicitation in 1999 and 2000 with those in 2005.

The study found a pronounced increase in Internet users ages 10 to 17 who were exposed to unwanted sexual material – fully one-third in 2005 compared to 25% previously. Much of the unwanted pornography youth saw was very graphic. Most youth saw images of people engaged in sexual acts or sexual deviance or violence.

There was also an increase in online harassment, which rose to 9% compared to 6% in the earlier survey. Study authors said it was consistent with growing indicators of online incivility among youth. Harassment was defined as threats or other offensive behavior sent online to the youth or posted online about the youth for others to see.

At the same time, however, the study found a smaller proportion of online youth received online sexual solicitations, only 1 in 7 in 2005 compared to 1 in 5 in 1999 and 2000. The report attributes this to more cautious behavior by youth, with fewer going to chatrooms or interacting online with people they did not know.

On the issue of online solicitations, the telephone-based survey runs counter to recent reports and congressional action in response to a perceived growing danger of online predators in social-networking sites such as MySpace.com. H.R. 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) which recently passed in the House by a vote of 410 to 15, requires, with few exemptions, that facilities receiving federal aid block minors from accessing commercial social-networking sites and chat rooms, where they might encounter adults seeking sexual contact. (See X-Press Report, “DOPA Bill Passes House -- Goes to Senate,” 8/4/06).

Henry Jenkins, professor of literature and director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, calls DOPA a "monumentally ill-considered piece of legislation" that "by any rational measure" should never have left the House. The impact on youth from economically disadvantaged families is what Jenkins worries about most. "Already, you have a gap between kids who have 10 minutes of Internet access a day at the public library and kids who have 24-hour-a-day access at home," he says.

Information on the NCMEC study is from the University of New Hampshire, 8/6/06
See also, Anick Jesdanun, The Associated Press, 8/10/06
Henry Jenkins quotes are from Wade Roush, Techreview.com, 8/7/06