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Posted on 09/30/2002 4:38:34 PM PDT by Selmo
(CNSNews.com) - Unless hotels across the country stop piping X-rated movies into their rooms, one family group fears guests who view the pay-per-view porn might act out their deviant fantasies on residents in neighboring communities, and even children. Libertarians, however, accuse the American Family Association of trying to further their moral agenda.
AFA's online advocacy wing, OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com, has launched a petition drive intended to force Marriott International to "get out of the hardcore porn business."
According to AFA spokesman Buddy Smith, the family group is specifically targeting Marriott because the hotel chain has promoted itself in the past as a company that stands for traditional family values.
"We do believe that it is morally wrong to view pornography," Smith said. "And, we think it's offensive to most Americans."
But the AFA is not concerning itself only with its moral case against Marriott. Smith said there are several legal issues that must also be addressed.
"Some of our concern with Marriott is that they do not protect children in the way that they should," he said. "With a couple of clicks of the remote, a child could have access to the materials."
For instance, Smith said the AFA is urging Marriott to automatically block pornographic movies from appearing on the menu of pay-per-view in-room movies. "In order to even have access to those movies, an adult would have to go to the front desk and ask that the selections be made available," he said.
According to the AFA, the longstanding practice of allowing adult hotel guests to "discreetly" order the pornographic movies has only made it easier for children to access the adult entertainment when left alone.
And it's not just kids that are at risk from a hotel's decision to provide sexually explicit movies. Smith said in-room porn also lowers community standards when out-of-town guests view pornographic movies.
"If Marriott would do the responsible thing here and get rid of the pornographic movies," Smith said, "we think that would go a long way in protecting some families and especially some children from what could be the outcome of someone who gets really addicted on this stuff and finally gets to a point that he or she acts out their behavior on a real person."
Freedom of choice
"All that's happening here is we've got certain people who want to try to control what other adults can see and read," said Libertarian Party spokesman George Getz.
While Getz said he favors punishing people who commit crimes, he does not subscribe to the AFA's belief that hotels should ban adult movies because some people may later commit a sex crime.
"To take [Smith''s] argument to a logical conclusion, do people who watch Woody Allen movies go out and start just cracking hysterical jokes," Getz asked. "I don't think so."
He said the AFA could adopt a Libertarian solution to avoiding unsolicited access to pornography in hotel rooms by avoiding hotels such as the Marriott and essentially voting with their dollars.
"If they want to go beyond that, here''s another Libertarian solution," he said. "Go ahead and organize a boycott. Tell everyone you can in whatever way you want that hotel "X'' shows x-rated films.
"As far as the kids issue goes, our view is really that kids are the property of their parents and they're the responsibility of their parents," Getz said. "The parents should be a censor at home and they should be a censor in the hotel."
He warned the AFA against lobbying lawmakers to write legislation that would prohibit hotels from providing access to adult movies on the sole basis that it contrasts with a given person or group's moral values.
"Should the majority be able to walk into a minority''s house and take some books off of his shelf because it violates a community's standards?" Getz asked. "We don't think that the majority should have the right to decide what religious views the minority can have or what books they can read or what movies they can show. Those things just shouldn''t be subject to a majority rule."
Protecting kids
"We certainly respect and appreciate everyone''s opinions on a subject matter like this," said Marriott Corporation Vice President of Communications Roger Conner. "I know that it's a sensitive subject matter for many people."
Conner refuted AFA's claims that Marriott offers "hardcore pornography" to its guests.
"We offer movies primarily that are at a Level I rating which is the least revealing of all adult content," he said. Conner refused to describe exactly what a Level I content rating entails or whether such movies could violate community obscenity standards.
Regardless of the content of Marriott's adult offerings, Conner said the movies are very quickly and easily blocked out for anyone who wishes to do so.
"Families with anyone under age in the same room that wish to block it out, probably would proceed to do so," he said. "If there are children in a connected room, one could quickly and easily block it out in that room and they should do so right away if they don't want children to have access to adult content."
Conner said Marriott is currently exploring ways to better communicate the hotel chain's ability to block out adult entertainment for concerned guests and their families.
Don't they have something better to espouse?
There was a case some years back in Utah where a small-town video store owner was charged with stocking obscene material. He was able to defend himself on the grounds that similar videos were being shown at the local hotels.
If the AFA put it that way, I'd be all for it.
I travel, and I've started staying only at hotels that have DSL. Holiday Inn Express is the cheapest in that category.
Or do they suddenly become neurotic?
The AFA would do better to rent a Woody Allen movie.
Actually the movies they show aren't very hot at all.
Um, up on the wall, 'way up high, huh? A vision I'd rather not be having.
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