X-rated films take to the road

Dirty DVDs draw stares, complaints

By Lora Hines

The Clarion-Ledger

July 12, 2004

Mike Wilkins, lead installer at CS Soundoff in Byram, checks the fit of a flip-down DVD player that faces the rear of an SUV. The vehicle will have one installed in the ceiling for the rear passengers along with a combination DVD and driver information display in the dash.

DVD players became a rear-seat option for new vehicles in 2003. But millions of people also have bought portable DVD players for vehicles.

More than 450 million individual pieces of mobile entertainment, including DVD players and video monitors, were bought in 2002, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

No one has yet determined how many wrecks have been caused by motorists who watch DVDs while driving, according to national driver safety organizations.

At least 25 percent of all crashes are caused by driver distraction, said Tim Hurd of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. At 65 mph, a vehicle moves about 88 feet per second, he said.

For Lyn McMillin of Madison, watching DVDs in her family's vehicle is a special treat. Her three children may only watch them during long trips.

She's shocked some people think it's appropriate to use DVD players to watch X-rated movies on the road.

"It would upset me. I would tell (my children) to look away," McMillin said. "They should pass a law to regulate that." Statewide, police have gotten complaints about motorists showing more than Disney movies on screens while rolling down the road.

A state lawmaker earlier this year tried to get passed a law that would prohibit the playing of X-rated videos that could be seen by others outside the vehicle. The Senate passed a bill with Sen. Mike Chaney's amendment with the proposed ban, but the bill later died in a House committee.

Chaney, R-Vicksburg, said an angry constituent had contacted him. The man and his 8-year-old son were riding in Vicksburg when the boy spotted someone watching an X-rated video in another vehicle. "It's pretty prevalent in our town," said Chaney, who researched the issue.

On his way home from the post office one night, Chaney saw an X-rated movie playing on a vehicle's DVD, too, he said. He was stopped at a red light.

"If someone wants to watch it in the privacy of their own home, that's their business," Chaney said. "But you don't subject other people and children to it."

Chaney plans to try again in the next session to address X-rated DVD viewing in vehicles. He thinks more lawmakers will back it, especially since Tennessee passed its law.

On July 1, Tennessee became the first state to ban the playing of X-rated films in vehicles. Violators pay a $50 fine.

Tennessee state Sen. Mark Norris of Collierville said he spon-sored the bill in response to a constituent's complaint.

"I just couldn't believe it was a problem," said Norris, who also practices law in Jackson, Miss. "Then I started researching it."

Several people told him they had seen motorists watching X-rated films.

"(The law) makes a statement," Norris said. "We don't condone that kind of conduct."

Other states, including Louisiana and Oklahoma, have considered similar legislation. Thirty-eight states prohibit drivers from watching any television while driving.

It is not illegal in Mississippi to have video screens visible to vehicle drivers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Norris thinks the issue will become a problem if people try to ignore it.

"Some people say, 'Who cares.' They'll try to look away and not say anything," Norris said. "Well, that makes a statement, too."

Memphis police said last week they didn't think anyone has yet been ticketed.

In the absence of a specific law in Mississippi, the charge for a motorist watching X-rated films varies, depending on the agency.

In Greenville, former Police Chief Lon Pepper had sought to have anyone watching sex videos while driving charged with public display of sexually oriented material, a misdemeanor. A conviction could carry a maximum $5,000 fine and one-year jail term.

Pepper, who retired last week, had told his officers to arrest anyone caught watching an X-rated film. Don't issue any warnings, Pepper said.

He had discussed the issue with other police chiefs during the recent state Police Chiefs Association's annual conference.

"It's created some irate citizens with children who are riding around," Pepper said. "I don't know why anyone would want to try it."

Maj. Lester Carter, who replaced Pepper, couldn't be reached last week regarding whether he would continue the policy.

Greenville police hadn't arrested anyone as of last week.

Pepper sought an opinion from state Attorney General Jim Hood before instituting his mandatory arrest policy.

Hood's opinion backs law enforcement's authority to make arrests where "sexually oriented material" is easily visible to individuals on the public street, road or sidewalk.

Tupelo and Jackson police departments also are among the departments receiving complaints.

Tupelo Maj. Anthony Hill said officers who see people watching X-rated films while driving can charge them with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. He didn't immediately know how many motorists had been charged.

A Jackson official says they're receiving about two complaints a month.

"As late as about a month ago, we got a complaint about someone watching a video stopped at a red light," said Jackson Police spokesman Robert Graham. "They couldn't give a (license) tag or description."

Officers must see the offense to ticket a motorist, Graham said. That's the only way they can prove who was in the vehicle when the movie was displayed.

While Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol troopers can't charge motorists for displaying sexually oriented material in their vehicle because they only enforce traffic laws, MHP Capt. Johnny Rawls said they can ticket careless or reckless motorists.

"That could include anyone watching a television while going down the road," he said.

Rawls isn't aware of any Jackson-area troopers coming across a motorist watching an X-rated film while driving, he said.

The law

The following is the 1979 state statute that state Attorney General Jim Hood said police could use to stop motorists from watching X-rated films in vehicles:

SEC. 97-5-27. Dissemination of sexually oriented material to persons under 18 years of age.

(1) Any person who intentionally and knowingly disseminates sexually oriented material to any person under 18 years of age shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined for each offense not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 or be imprisoned for not more than one year in the county jail, or be punished by both such fine and imprisonment. A person disseminates sexually oriented material within the meaning of this section if he:

(a) Sells, delivers or provides, or offers or agrees to sell, deliver or provide, any sexually oriented writing, picture, record or other representation or embodiment that is sexually oriented; or
(b) Presents or directs a sexually oriented play, dance or other performance or participates directly in that portion thereof which makes it sexually oriented; or
(c) Exhibits, presents, rents, sells, delivers or provides or offers or agrees to exhibit, present, rent or to provide any sexually oriented still or motion picture, film, filmstrip or projection slide, or sound recording, sound tape or sound track or any matter or material of whatever form which is a representation, embodiment, performance or publication that is sexually oriented.

(2) For purposes of this section, any material is sexually oriented if the material contains representations or descriptions, actual or simulated, of masturbation, sodomy, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals or female breasts, sadomasochistic abuse (for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification), homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, sexual intercourse, or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks or the breast or breasts of a female for the purpose of sexual stimulation, gratification or perversion.

State Sen. Mike Chaney's proposed amendment to ban the showing of X-rated films in vehicles:

No pornographic video may be played in a vehicle on a public road or highway in such a manner that it may be observed by any person who is not an occupant of the vehicle.