[dan1123]

All technological hurdles aside, I want to start with principles first. If it is not okay to have sex in the street downtown, is the reason why because it is viewable only to people within that community or because the community has a right to regulate what is publicly viewable within their borders?

[fr_freak]

All technological hurdles aside, I want to start with principles first. If it is not okay to have sex in the street downtown, is the reason why because it is viewable only to people within that community or because the community has a right to regulate what is publicly viewable within their borders?

OK. On principle, I would say that any local community has the right to ban internet connections entirely from public facilities, such as libraries, government offices, etc. Or, as an alternative, to censor/filter content in the same way that many private companies do. In theory, I guess they could outlaw the providing and selling of internet connections within their local jurisdictions if they wanted to, but the populace would be stupid to allow such a thing.

However, passing a law which attempts to outlaw only pornography on the internet requires the controls I described earlier, which would be virtually impossible to implement without Orwellian intrusiveness (think satellite internet connections, such as DirectTV).