ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the treatment of freedom of expression claims of the creators, distributors and possessors of sexually explicit imagery of children. Sexually explicit expression on the other hand appears to have little if any connection to a well-functioning deliberative democracy. The Supreme Court's treatment of a panoply of Congressional restrictions impacting directly on sexually explicit expression has demonstrated at times a preoccupation with the rights of adults to receive non-obscene indecent expression whilst managing to understate competing constitutional values. In response, Congress drafted a more tightly defined set of provisions in the Child Online Protection Act 1997 (COPA) which made it an offence for a person to transmit for commercial purposes material over the World Wide Web that is 'harmful to minors'. After all, values such as equal respect, individual privacy, religious freedom and freedom of association are also relevant to individual development and flourishing.
