How did changing attitudes about sex affect obscenity prosecutions after the 1960s?

Beginning in the 1960s, changing attitudes toward sex and marriage fostered a trend toward greater sexual permissiveness and an emphasis on individual privacy in many Western nations. This shift in morality made it increasingly difficult for authorities to pursue obscenity prosecutions against sexually explicit books and motion pictures in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.1

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Miller v. California established a three-part test that theoretically expanded the legal basis for suppressing such material, the broader cultural move toward permissiveness often conflicted with these legal standards. Furthermore, feminist campaigns in the 1980s introduced a different perspective, arguing that pornography should be restricted because it degraded women and violated human rights, rather than based on traditional sexual morality.1

A significant exception to this trend of liberalization was the strengthening of laws against the sexual exploitation of children. Courts consistently upheld strict standards for child pornography, viewing the protection of minors as a compelling government interest.1