Jury Rejects "My Daughter Saw Gay Porn!" Lawsuit

[meegbear]

You may recall my 2008 post about former Big Brother contestant Kent Blackwelder, who filed a $4M lawsuit against Specialty Publications (a distributor of Titan Media) because his daughter "accidentally opened" one of their promo packages which was mysteriously sent to his house. Blackwelder's suit claimed that a five-second viewing of naked gay men caused his daughter to need counseling for a sudden fear of being kidnapped. (By Titan porn stars, one presumes.) Yesterday a Tennessee jury rejected the lawsuit as nonsense.

The four-woman, four-man civil jury rejected Powell father Kent Blackwelder's bid to hold California firm Specialty Publications Inc. financially responsible for his then-12-year-old daughter's glimpse of a racy advertisement for the gay magazine "Freshmen" in May 2007. "Do I wish it hadn't happened?" First Amendment attorney Richard Hollow asked jurors in closing arguments. "Yes. Do I believe children should be protected? You bet. But it's not up to everybody else to take care of our children." Blackwelder, who appeared on the "Big Brother" reality television show in 2001, wound up on the mailing list after his name and address were used to enter an online contest for a free trip to a "gay-friendly" locale. His daughter later opened a direct-mail brochure with photos of nude men. He sued, claiming the mailer was unsolicited, violated postal regulations and caused his daughter distress. But Hollow countered that the publisher, which has since folded, followed regulations. The mailing was sealed with a "wafer tab" and bore a warning label.

Blackwelder says he was put on the mailing list as an act of vengeance for a different lawsuit claiming he'd been fired from his job because he is white.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/12/tennessee-jury-rejects-my-daughter-saw.html

:eyes:

[Kennah]

1. My Daughter Saw Gay Porn!

Sounds like a headline from The Weekly World News.

[sharp_stick]

2. Reminds me of a story

about a father at a library. His kids, middle school age boys, were "accidentally" exposed to pornography on a library computer when they were searching for military colleges (schools) to attend. Of course his poor little spawn didn't mean to hunt down naked chicks on hustler.com they just thought that was a lead in site for West Point or the Coast Guard Academy.

He couldn't understand why everyone was laughing in the face of his fury. He wanted everyone in the city, except his horny kids, punished for exposing them to levels of vile filth that would no doubt lead to a lifetime of counselling that he also wanted the Government to pay for.

[MiniMe]

8. That's what happens when you google naked women.

A little parental supervision is called for sometimes. Sometimes you just have to deal with it. Kids have been finding pictures of naked adults for years. National Geographic, Dad's playboy, etc.

[qb]

3. This is something a competent parent would treat as a "teachable moment"

:eyes:

[old mark]

4. I am speechless - this is too funny - thanks! K&R...nt

[pepperbear]

5. naked man=kidnapping. I am so glad someone cleared that up for me.

;)

[DCKit]

6. Kudos to the responsible, adult and sane jurors.

And, probably, the judge as well.

[Tx4obama]

7. He should have taught his daughter long ago to NOT open HIS mail. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

9. And that unless the mail was addressed directly to her that it isn't her mail.

[SheilaT]

10. Several years ago I asked my sons,

then in their teens, how often they accidentally came across pornography when on the internet. They essentially said that they almost never came across it. I didn't ask them if they deliberately searched for it, because I only wanted to know how easily it was to access it without intending to. From what they said, I concluded that it wasn't all that easy to stumble upon.

I can tell you that I don't find myself suddenly on a pornographic website when searching for all the various things I might be searching for.

[gmoney]

11. as long as you have Google image safe search turned "on"

If you turn it off, even the most innocent search phrase is likely to land you in porn town...

[SheilaT]

12. I don't even know what Google image

safe search is. Maybe it's a default setting that I just never learned about.