Modem Opens Erotica Door to Savvy Juniors

A 12-year-old might not be able to get past the front door of an adult bookstore. But with a computer, he doesn’t need to.

Using a modem, junior can dial into an electronic bulletin board system, lie about his age and access the adult files section.

There he finds an erotic library ranging from lurid text to short, X-rated digital movies.

For computer-literate minors, a back door has been opened to the forbidden that existing statutes are ill-equipped to close, said Gale Evans, who oversees the FBI’s anti-pornography effort.

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Interstate transport of obscene material is illegal, but it’s not clear if that includes digital transmission, he said.

A New York-based group called Morality in Media has been pushing for updating federal pornography laws that target computers. Its president, Bob Peters, said he wants Congress to prohibit use of telephones to transmit obscenity.

“To me, that would include communication by computers,” he said.

Peters acknowledges such a proposal would raise free speech issues, but he believes the need for regulation outweighs those concerns.

Some operators of electronic bulletin board systems have made efforts to restrict access to adult files. Many require on-line assurances of age.

Kay Leavitt, who operates Utah’s Graphics Connection, goes a step further.

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Before members are given the password to the adult section, they must mail in an application stating that they are over 18 and, in some cases, provide photo identification, he said.

Leavitt said he tries to limit the selection in the adult section--the system’s most popular--to soft-core. But sometimes a caller will try to get harder stuff through.

A few days after interviewing Leavitt, a reporter found one such file in the Graphics Connection’s “new upload” directory. Since it had not been categorized, the reporter was able to download the file--an explicit, hard-core digital movie--without a password.

The file was soon discovered and deleted, but the incident underscores the difficulty of keeping sexually explicit material out of the hands of savvy minors.

The Public Domain, a fixture of Utah’s electronic bulletin board system since 1989, once offered adult materials, but no longer. System operator Ed Denton said it’s not worth the risk.

“There’s just no way to guarantee that children don’t get hold of them,” he said. “I don’t think it’s smart--or right.”