The Wide Availability of Internet: Is Watching Adult Content in Public Illegal?

You can enjoy online access almost everywhere you go and that means you have a wide viewing choice if you are looking for some entertainment on the move.

However, your choice of viewing material might prove offensive if you decide to watch adult content in a public place.

Even though the act of watching pornography in public is not considered to be illegal in a number of circumstances you will have to be watchful in terms of your behavior if you don’t want to find yourself defending sex crime charges.

Here is a look at some of the potential crimes and misdemeanors associated with watching adult content in a public space.

Who is watching?

You would have to check the local state laws to be absolutely sure that watching adult content in public is not illegal but even if it is deemed to be okay there are still circumstances where you could find yourself in trouble with the law.

For example, it is your responsibility to ensure that any minor under the age of 18 is not subjected to pornographic content on your device.

There are some serious criminal charges related to exposing minors to this sort of content and the type of pornography you are watching could also see you facing some severe penalties and even some jail time.

The acceptability question

Putting the legal argument aside for one moment, there is also the basic issue of whether it is acceptable behavior in a public space.

There are several protest groups in existence, such as the National Center On Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) who have campaigned specifically to try and stop passengers watching porn at airport terminals and on flights, for instance.

Any form of public transport could be deemed to be off-limits from a morality point of view in some people’s eyes, even if the law says you are free to enjoy this content without fear of prosecution.

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There are plenty of people who have complained about being inadvertently exposed to adult content through the actions of a fellow citizen in a public space, so there is always the acceptability question to consider.

Filtering content

There have been legal arguments related to watching pornographic content in a public space such as a library and the imposition of a filter on the computers there so that users are shielded from what could be deemed harmful content, especially minors.

Some libraries have been known to refuse to intervene and deny someone access to pornography if they have requested that the filter is unblocked.

All of these different scenarios and arguments are mainly centered around the general view of whether watching pornography in a public place is illegal.

In general terms, it seems that the act of viewing this content is not likely to be an illegal act, in itself, but it is when you allow others to see what they shouldn’t be viewing or didn’t want to see that could land you in trouble with the law.