I was at college and didn't want to spend too much time with this thread in my browser (and I didn't even start it. ). So I'll finish what I wanted to say now...

I think that the penalties for people who just view it are harsh if it lands them in jail. Some kind of psychological therapy would be more useful and fair. I strongly disagree with the governments current stance on legislation dealing with sexual conduct, especially when it comes to things like age of consent and the crimes one can be charged with if an 18 year old is in a relationship with a teenager relativly close in age, and then that teenagers family emotionally and economically manipulate said teenager to sign a form to press charges, landing 18 year old in some deep shit in a lot of states. Beyond that I obviously don't agree with the attempts and/or successes that various western governments have made to control the content of pornography because they deem it is not morally acceptable.

By this I do not mean child pornography, or rape being filmed, but things considered taboo such as BDSM, "fake" rape scenes, and what not. This also brings up prostituion, which of course I feel should be legalized to ensure the safety of both the customers and workers.

Also there are many sodomy laws on the books in states that are just ridiculous, though they are not enforced, should be removed for obvious reasons.

To sum it up, yeah, the government goes way overboard on punishing petty or just plane made the fuck up sex crimes, lumping them in with REAL sex crimes, which most likely hurts more people than it helps.