This section defines terms used in the chapter, including “disseminate,” “knowledge,” “material,” “obscene,” “predominant appeal,” “sexual conduct,” and “child.”
In this chapter: I. "Disseminate" means to import, publish, produce, print, manufacture, distribute, sell, lease, exhibit or display. II. "Knowledge" means general awareness of the nature of the content of the material. III. "Material" means any printed matter, visual representation, live performance or sound recording including, but not limited to, books, magazines, motion picture films, pamphlets, phonographic records, pictures, photographs, figures, statues, plays, dances or other representation or embodiment of the obscene. Undeveloped photographs, molds, printing plates, and the like, shall be deemed obscene material notwithstanding that processing or other acts may be required to make the obscenity patent or to disseminate it. IV. Material is "obscene" if, considered as a whole, to the average person (a) When applying the contemporary standards of the county within which the obscenity offense was committed, its predominant appeal is to the prurient interest in sex, that is, an interest in lewdness or lascivious thoughts; (b) It depicts or describes sexual conduct in a manner so explicit as to be patently offensive; and (c) It lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. V. "Predominant appeal" shall be judged with reference to ordinary adults unless it appears from the character of the material or the circumstances of its dissemination to be designed for children or other specially susceptible audience. VI. "Sexual conduct" means human masturbation, sexual intercourse, actual or simulated, normal or perverted, whether alone or between members of the same or opposite sex or between humans and animals, any depiction or representation of excretory functions, any lewd exhibitions of the genitals, flagellation or torture in the context of a sexual relationship. Sexual intercourse is simulated when it depicts explicit sexual intercourse which gives the appearance of the consummation of sexual intercourse, normal or perverted. VII. "Child" means a person under the age of 18. Source: Source. 1971, 518:1. 1976, 46:3. 1977, 199:3. 1994, 60:1, eff. Jan. 1, 1995.