Is it illegal for a parent to watch porn in front of a minor?

Question

We have two computers in my family’s office and let’s say I’m working on homework on one of them, my dad is almost always on the other computer. My dad always watches gay porn or shirtless male models or things of that sort right in front of me, even though I’m technically facing the other way. Whenever I turn around to see he shifts over to try and tries to cover the screen, but it doesn’t work and I can see all of it. He does this pretty much everyday. Is this legal? I’m not even old enough to drive

Answer 1

I disagree with the previous answer, at least as a blanket statement. There are laws in some jurisdictions prohibiting furnishing pornography to a minor. (Missouri.) So it would clearly be illegal (in Missouri) for your father to give you a DVD of porn. Whether routinely leaving porn available for you to watch qualifies as furnishing strikes me as a real question, and there is a case suggesting even one-time display is a crime.

There was a prosecution of a substitute teacher who turned on the classroom computer and porn came up. The case was a travesty, and the real problem were the school's incompetent IT people, who didn't run up-to-date antivirus software on the computers, as a result of which it had suffered a browser hijack. The teacher was originally convicted, reversed on appeal when they got some tech-savvy attorneys.

Answer 2

I believe it is a capital crime in Saudia Arabia: you need to me a bit more specific about jurisdiction. In the US it is not a crime, and First Amendment considerations would make it difficult for there to be such a law. That does not mean that there are no possible civil sanctions that could be imposed. Courts have broader leeway to intervene on behalf of the child even though parents have great constitutional liberty to control the upbringing of their children, and if a child is cruelly mistreated, those parental right can be terminated. But the court (judge) does not have an unlimited right to arbitrarily decide that it is child abuse to make a child go to church, or not go to church, or watch porn, or not watch porn. Each state will have laws pertaining to "child abuse", e.g. RCW 26.44.020 for Washington, defining it in terms of sexual exploitation or injury that causes harm to the child's health, welfare, or safety; or negligent treatment; or similar expressions.

The simple act of viewing porn when a child is present and might accidentally see it would not be actionable in terms of child abuse laws, but if it is part of a broader pattern of sexual behavior with respect to the child, it could indeed constitute abuse. Under the innocent interpretation of carelessness, if a complaint were filed, a social worker might give the parent a mild talking-to, but this would not likely lead to any civil (or criminal) action.