Interstate Obscenity Definition Act of 2025

Summary: This bill would redefine obscenity to make it easier to prosecute.

Details

Current law defines content as “obscene” if:

1. the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
2. the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and
3. the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

This bill would redefine “obscenity” to mean content that:

1. taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion;
2. depicts, describes, or represents, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts, or lewd exhibition of the genitals, with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person; and
3. taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

It would also remove the requirement that only prohibits the transmission of obscenity for the purposes abusing, threatening, or harassing a person.