A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show "harmful material" to their children has come under fire after a prosecutor said he couldn't file charges against a man accused of forcing his eight- and nine-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography.
The law apparently was meant to protect the privacy of parents who wanted to teach children about sex education, but it states clearly that parents can't be prosecuted for showing "harmful material" to their children.
Randall County District Attorney James Farren has asked for an opinion from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott about a law Farren says makes no sense and needs to be changed.
Farren says the argument that government has no right to tell parents how to raise their children doesn't fly here. "The government should and does respect the right of parents to raise their children, but that doesn't mean a parent can do anything they want to their child. Obviously, the government can step in when parents are acting in a way that is sufficiently detrimental to the mental health and the physical health of children. I understand that this is a conservative community. I'm conservative. I don't like big government. I don't want government too intrusive, and I certainly don't want government intruding into the family more than necessary. . . . but I don't think very many people would believe that it's appropriate to show true pornographic material to their children simply because they're the parent and they choose to do that - just because they're twisted enough, they want to watch it, that they then want to subject their children to it."
More on this story here.
The law apparently was meant to protect the privacy of parents who wanted to teach children about sex education, but it states clearly that parents can't be prosecuted for showing "harmful material" to their children.
Randall County District Attorney James Farren has asked for an opinion from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott about a law Farren says makes no sense and needs to be changed.
Farren says the argument that government has no right to tell parents how to raise their children doesn't fly here. "The government should and does respect the right of parents to raise their children, but that doesn't mean a parent can do anything they want to their child. Obviously, the government can step in when parents are acting in a way that is sufficiently detrimental to the mental health and the physical health of children. I understand that this is a conservative community. I'm conservative. I don't like big government. I don't want government too intrusive, and I certainly don't want government intruding into the family more than necessary. . . . but I don't think very many people would believe that it's appropriate to show true pornographic material to their children simply because they're the parent and they choose to do that - just because they're twisted enough, they want to watch it, that they then want to subject their children to it."
More on this story here.
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