PORNOGRAPHY. – From the Greek πορνογράφος, painter or writer of prostitution. According to the etymological meaning of the word, it indicates obscenity displayed through writing, but in common usage and even in legal language the concept has been broadened so that “pornographic” is applied not only to licentious literature but to any other exhibition of this kind, whether conveyed through drawings, speeches, photographs, acts, etc., that offend modesty.
Pornography is one of the saddest phenomena of periods of moral decay and represents a particularly grave danger to youth, an age in which sexual stimuli act with greater speed and force and in which moral awareness is ordinarily less vigilant.
Italian legislation for the defense of morality (as, indeed, the legislation of all civilized countries) strikes at pornography in all its forms, whatever the means by which it is made public: periodical and non-periodical publications, newspapers, posters, objects displayed for sale or advertising purposes, immoral shows, etc.
Article 528 of the Penal Code punishes with imprisonment from three months to three years anyone who acquires pornographic material for the purpose of trade or distribution, and anyone who, by any means of publicity, facilitates its circulation.
The Code does not consider an artistic or scientific work to be pornographic. Unfortunately, the elasticity with which the concept of “artistic work” is sometimes interpreted makes possible, despite the law, a lax jurisprudence. However, the sanction is restored when an artistic or scientific work is offered for sale, sold, or otherwise procured for a person under eighteen years of age for a purpose other than study. Article 725 of the Penal Code also imposes a fine on anyone who exposes to public view or, in a public or publicly accessible place, offers for sale or distributes writings, drawings, or any other pictorial object that “offends public decency.” Everything that is pornographic is liable to seizure by the competent authority (administrative, judicial, civil, or penal).
There is, therefore, no lack of laws that strike at pornography in all its forms and at every stage of its pernicious activity. What is needed, then, is the reaction of citizens who have the courage to defend virtue publicly, and to defend their right not to be offended in their most intimate and delicate feelings and not to be hindered in their work as educators.