The Pentagon has a team of people to plan for future warfare scenarios, inform policymakers of defense intelligence matters, and, according to a new report, review pornography for the U.S. military.
The Department of Defense has a review board of military and civilian officials who go through porn materials to see what can be allowed to sell on bases, Business Insider reported Friday. Any material that is deemed "sexually explicit" is not allowed to be sold or rented on military bases because of a law from 1996.
The Military Honor and Decency Act prohibits the sale of any porn material at a post exchange, or PX, and the military has held "censorship board" meetings to discuss these issues since 1998. The law was challenged in a federal court on grounds that it violated the First Amendment, but it was upheld by a federal judge in 1997.
Some examples have been released of what has passed the censorship board and what has not, Business Insider noted.
The earliest year of banned titles that the FOIA [Freed of Information Act] uncovered was from 2008, which included magazines titled "Nasty Housewives" and "Cheri." The 2006 board included magazines such as "30 Something," "Raunchy Couples," "Young & Stacked," and videos "Beach Babes 2," "Bikini Traffic School," and "Obsessed with Lust."
The 2006 board reviewed many more video titles and deemed them to be "not sexually explicit," which included some from Playboy and talk show host Jerry Springer, such as "Bad Boys & Naughty Girls" and "Too Hot for TV." Apparently, Jerry Springer is not too hot for the troops to watch.
A Freedom of Information Act request had to be filed to be able to find out how the process works.
According to meeting minutes released under FOIA of what is called the Resale Activities Board of Review, it takes about a day or two for the Pentagon to figure out what is and is not porn.
Once everyone is present, the Board is called into session by its chairman. Members, who are either members of the military or DoD civilians, represent each branch of service. Typically, the chair goes over the regulation again with the members before presenting the material for review. In 2006, the board looked at 18 magazines and 6 videos. In 2007 and 2008, they checked out 23 and 24 magazines, respectively.
Business Insider says that the board costs the Department of Defense approximately $5,500 per year.