Pornography: Hanging Up On Porn

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Dirty talk isn't cheap. "Dial-a-porn" telephone services have become a huge $2.4 billion industry. After listening to complaints about easy access to sexually explicit telephone messages, the Federal Communications Commission last week fined two California-based companies $600,000 each for transmitting obscene material across state lines. Like many other dial-a-porn lines, the companies did nothing to keep minors from using the services.

Earlier, the House of Representatives sent an even sharper message by approving an outright ban on dial-a-porn lines in an amendment to the $8.3 billion education bill. The measure would simply outlaw any "obscene" telephone services. Although some legislators expressed doubt about the bill's constitutionality, California Republican William Dannemeyer, a co-sponsor of the amendment, declared, "People want it banned. Let the Supreme Court rule on constitutionality."