Indecent Proposals: a Legal Analysis of ‘Indecency’ Applied to Broadcasting and the Internet

University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2005 Indecent Proposals: A Legal Analysis of ‘Indecency’ Applied to Broadcasting and the Internet Maria Irene Fontenot University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons Recommended Citation Fontenot, Maria Irene, "Indecent Proposals: A Legal Analysis of ‘Indecency’ Applied to Broadcasting and the Internet. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2005. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1951 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Maria Irene Fontenot entitled "Indecent Proposals: A Legal Analysis of ‘Indecency’ Applied to Broadcasting and the Internet." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Communication and Information. Benjamin J. Bates, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Barbara Moore, Catherine A. Luther, John M. Scheb II Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Maria Irene Fontenot entitled “Indecent Proposals: A Legal Analysis of ‘Indecency’ Applied to Broadcasting and the Internet.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Communication and Information. Benjamin J. Bates Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Barbara Moore Catherine A. Luther John M. Scheb II Accepted for the Council: Anne Mayhew Vice Chancellor and Dean of Graduate Studies (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) INDECENT PROPOSALS: A LEGAL ANALYSIS OF “INDECENCY” APPLIED TO BROADCASTING AND THE INTERNET A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Maria Irene Fontenot August 2005 Copyright© 2005 by Maria Irene Fontenot All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Jerrylene and Paul Fontenot, and my grandparents, Enola and the late Maurice Trahan and the late Irene and Douglas Fontenot. iii ACKNOWLEGMENTS I wish to thank many people for their patience, guidance, and support throughout my doctoral program and this dissertation. First, I would like to thank my family, particularly my parents. I owe a great deal to my parents who always encouraged and supported me as well as my brothers and sister for their love, support, and humor. I must acknowledge my great friends. My friends were amazing throughout this process. They were very understanding and patient when I tended to “fly off the radar” for a while. I would like to especially thank Dr. Chandler Harriss and his wife DeAnna for their great help and support. They are wonderful friends. I must also acknowledge Dr. Denis Wu for being such a supportive friend during my doctoral program. Finally, I would like to thank the faculty and staff at the University of Tennessee who always encouraged me. In particular, I would like to thank my doctoral committee, Drs. Benjamin Bates, Barbara Moore, Catherine Luther and John Scheb II, for their support, patience, and encouragement. They were amazing mentors. iv ABSTRACT The purpose of the dissertation was to analyze indecency policy and identify valid arguments and approaches from which one can find a viable model or approach of content regulation for both broadcast media and the Internet. Broadcast media and the Internet are both under scrutiny by the federal government for increased content regulation; therefore, both media are facing threatened First Amendments rights. This dissertation explored whether the public interest could be best served through the marketplace approach to content regulation of indecent speech on broadcast radio and television and the Internet. The dissertation explored, compared, and contrasted indecency regulation on broadcast radio and television with indecency regulation on the Internet. It attempted to find trends, patterns, similarities, and differences in the mandated and suggested policies centering on regulating indecency on commercial broadcast radio and television and the Internet. The study also looked at the direction the legislative and judicial branches are going concerning policies on regulating indecent content on the Internet. The dissertation found that the marketplace approach to indecency regulation has so far prevailed on the Internet, with the exception of CIPA. With emerging technologies such as Internet filters and V-Chips, further government regulation of indecent content on the Internet or on broadcast television and radio would be not be useful. A receiver-based content control approach proposed in the dissertation suggested that the marketplace approach to content regulation would better serve the public interest because the public’s interest would be defined by the public itself. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION…………………………………………1 CHAPTER 2 – THEORETCIAL FOUNDATIONS……………………...17 CHAPTER 3 – BROADCAST RADIO & TELEVISION………………..44 CHAPTER 4 – THE INTERNET………………………………………..107 CHAPTER 5 – RESULTS & ANALYSIS………..……………………..131 CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSION………………………………………….162 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………..170 VITA……………………………………………………………………..193 vi CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION Over the decades, lawmakers and the FCC have implemented policies, many at the urging of special interest groups and parents, aimed at restricting content on broadcast television and radio and the Internet in the interest of protecting children. Such coercive efforts by the FCC and Congress raised serious First Amendment questions (Stern, 1995c). Some argued that if the FCC and Congress went along with suggestions made by strong special interest groups such as Action for Children’s Television (ACT), broadcasters’ freedom to create programs would be hindered (Corn-Revere, 1995). These same First Amendment issues are now threatening the Internet. How mass media, particularly television, affect children has been the subject of heated discussions for decades: television violence, sex and advertising topped the list of parental and lawmaker concerns for years (Baker & Ball, 1969; Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, 1970; Television and Social behavior, 1971; Pearl, Bouthilet & Lazar, 1982; Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, 1986; Youth Violence, 2001). The same concerns continued through the birth and growth of cable television. A variety of media over the decades, especially at the time of mass adoption, have been blamed for lowering the public’s cultural tastes, increasing rates of delinquency, contributing to moral deterioration, lulling the masses into political superficiality, and suppressing creativity (DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1977). Now, there is a new medium that faces those same concerns and brings discussions to new levels – the Internet. The Internet is a new medium that has generated public anxieties concerning children (Orleans & Laney, 2000). Linking libraries, businesses, institutions, and people, the 1 Internet allows access to a wealth of information (Huang & Alessi, 1996). Children tend to be on the forefront of new technology use – early adopters (Livingstone, 2002). Exposure to inappropriate content such as sex and violence are of great concern to parents due to the level of interactivity while using the Internet and World Wide Web (Wartella & Jennings, 2000). Eagle, Bulmer, and De Bruin (2003) found that while parents recognize the potential benefits of the Internet and World Wide Web, they remain very concerned about children accessing the Internet outside their home, particularly if children are unsupervised at the homes of others. Parents are also bothered by the number of adult web sites with addresses very similar to appropriate sites. These sites often bring children to sites containing material that is considered objectionable by parents (Eagle, Bulmer, and De Bruin, 2003). In sum, the introduction of the Internet and World Wide Web into the lives of children parallels the introduction of earlier waves of new media throughout the past decades in the concerns raised. This dissertation explores public interest arguments with regard to indecency regulation on broadcast radio, television, and the Internet, and the government and the court’s ability to serve the public interest via content-based regulation. It also looks at whether technology will allow for such regulation. First Amendment issues of content- based regulation on the Internet are examined. The dissertation will explore, compare, and contrast indecency regulation on broadcast radio and television with indecency regulation on the Internet. It will attempt to find trends, patterns, similarities, and differences

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