There is as yet no reliable evidence that the voluntary private production or consumption of pornography by consenting adults causes sufficiently significant harm to others.

Liberal defenders of the right to pornography may thus allow that restrictions on its public display may be justified. But only if pornography can reliably be shown to cause significant harm to people other than those consenting adults involved in its production and consumption will there be a legitimate case for prohibiting its voluntary private consumption. When an individual’s private activities cause harm to others, they become no longer merely a private matter but of legitimate public inter