What to do about mail porn
'Project Postporn'
On July 1, 1988, the United States Justice Department and U.S. Postal Service announced that criminal charges had been brought in eight states against 20 persons and 14 corporations for using the mails to advertise and distribute obscene material in violation of the Federal obscene mails statute [18 U.S.C. 1461].
The July 1 Release also said that "Project Postporn" was begun following "thousands of complaints" received by the Postal Service regarding advertisements for "Hard-core videos, films and magazines" and that many of the ads contained photos from the materials advertised.
"Project Postporn" continued during the Bush years, and by the end of the Bush administration, use of the mails to send or advertise obscenity had virtually come to a halt.
Unfortunately, this crackdown on mail porn was not continued during the Clinton Administration.
Obscenity Laws
If you receive an unsolicited "sexually oriented ad," you should take the offending material to your local Post Office and ask them to initiate an investigation for possible violations of the Federal Obscene Mail Law (18 U.S.C. 1461), which prohibits both the sending of obscene matter and ads for obscene matter.
Say also that you would like to know what the results of the investigation are, and that you will contact them again about the matter. Don't accept any nonsense from your local Post Office about such materials being "legal" or "protected by the First Amendment." Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, and there is no way for the Postal Inspectors to determine if the advertised matter is obscene until they order and view it.
You should also send a brief letter of complaint to the following address: Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section; U.S. Justice Dept., Criminal Division; 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW; Washington, DC 20530. Make sure you include the name and address of the mailer and the address of the Post Office where you made the complaint.
'Pandering Advertisements' and 'Sexually Oriented Advertisements'
If you are concerned about your children being exposed to sexually oriented advertising, or if you are offended by receiving such advertising in the mail, the U.S. Postal Service has a form (Form 1500) which allows you to protect yourself and your children.
Form 1500 has two parts. If you receive an advertisement in the mail that you believe to be "erotically arousing or sexually provocative," Form 1500 allows you to obtain a Prohibitory Order against the mailer under the Pandering Advertisments statute (39 USC 3008). Second, you can add your name, and the names of your minor children, to the Postal Service's list of persons who do not want to receive sexually oriented advertising. This is in accordance with the Sexually Oriented Advertisements statute (39 USC 3010). "Sexually oriented advertisements" are defined to mean "any advertisement that depicts, in actual or simulated form, or explicitly describes, in a predominantly sexual context, human genitalia, any act of natural or unnatural sexual intercourse, any act of sadism or masochism, or any other erotic subject directly related to the foregoing." "Pandering advertisements" are defined as "advertisements which offers for sale matter which the addressee in his or her sole discretion believes to be erotically arousing or sexually provocative."
The law goes on to say that "Material otherwise within the definition of this subsection shall be deemed to not constitute a 'sexually oriented advertisement' if it constitutes only a small and insignificant part of the whole of a single catalogue, book, periodical, or other work the remainder of which is not primarily devoted to sexual matters."
39 U.S.C. 3010 also requires that the legend "Sexually Oriented Ad" appear either on the exterior envelope of a mailing piece or a sealed interior envelope which contains the sexual material. If no such legend appears, you should point this out to your local Post Office, and ask them to begin proceedings against the mailer.
Please feel free to contact us if you have further questions.
Reprinted from the Morality in Media Newsletter
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