At 03:14 PM 6/11/03 -0700, Ray wrote:
To be effective any kind of flagging system must avoid subjective determinations. Words like "explicit" and "mature" can lead to some serious disagreements that can't easily be resolved. The following spectrum can be more objectively determined for photographs.
- Contains images of sex acts
- Contains close-up images of genitals
- Contains whole-body nudity
- Contains partial nudity
- Shows people in underclothes
- Shows suggestive photos of fully clad people
I'm not convinced that this doesn't just move the subjectivity. Even "sex acts" is open to argument--is one woman licking another's breast a sex act, for example? (I assume we agree that a photo of a nursing infant does not contain a sex act.) Was I partially nude at the clinic this morning, in underwear, t-shirt, and a hospital gown? (Yes, it's street legal, but this is New York State, so that doesn't mean a great deal.) In particular, what are "suggestive photos"? I doubt we'd manage a more objective definition for that than Potter Stewart's famous "I know it when I see it."