Drivers Spot X-Rated Films in Other Cars
 

Drivers Spot X-Rated Films in Other Cars
Thu Mar 11, 8:56 AM ET Add Strange News - AP to My Yahoo!

By DAVID RUNK, Associated Press Writer

DETROIT - Andrea Carlton hadn't planned on telling her daughter about the birds and bees until she was 8 or 9. But that changed the night 4-year-old Catherine spotted a porno movie flickering on a screen in a minivan nearby.

"Just like there's no windows in a strip club, you shouldn't be able to see inside windows in a car when they're watching X-rated movies," said Carlton, a 26-year-old from Gurnee, Ill.

More and more Americans are buying vehicles with DVD players, usually to keep the kids entertained. But an increasing number of other people on the road are catching a glimpse through the windows of more than just "Finding Nemo" and "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Depending on where they are driving or parked, motorists could face fines and even jail time for screening X-rated stuff. But where the law may not be clear, some are calling for tighter regulation.

"Residents should not be subjected to those obscenities," said Flint City Councilwoman Carolyn Sims, who is examining whether an ordinance packing a $500 fine is needed. "They do have a right to have peace and tranquility and not to have this exposure to sex in their face."

A driver in Schenectady, N.Y., was arrested last month after rolling past police with a DVD titled "Chocolate Foam" playing on the passenger-side sun visor in his Mercedes-Benz, authorities said. The movie also was rolling on screens set into the car's headrests.

The driver was accused of breaking state laws prohibiting watching TV while driving, as well as another law making it illegal to exhibit sexually explicit material in a public place.

"The detective had a clear view of what was playing through the window. Anyone walking by on the street could have seen it," Schenectady police Lt. Peter Frisoni Jr. said of the nighttime traffic stop. "If he had dark, tinted windows where you couldn't see in, that wouldn't be a public display."

As for Carlton, she was driving in the Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove with her daughter when Catherine glimpsed the sexually explicit movie. The experience last fall upset the girl and angered Carlton.

Carlton and her husband sat down with Catherine and offered the best explanation they could. Since then, Carlton has spotted other motorists with explicit movies playing, including a couple watching from the back seat of their car in a store parking lot.

"You're not allowed to have sex in your car, so why are you allowed to watch it?" Carlton asked.

Most states, including Michigan, have laws that make it illegal to watch TV while driving. Laws governing the exhibition of pornography vary by state, but experts say they could be applied to drivers as well.

"I think those restrictions would apply if the content is located in a vehicle," said Jeff Matsuura, director of the law and technology program at the University of Dayton. "You have effectively moved beyond the privacy of your own home."

During the day, it is often difficult to see what is playing inside another vehicle. But at night, the screens are easily visible from a passing car or a vehicle stopped alongside at a traffic light. The screens are also getting bigger.

In Flint, Sims took up the issue after hearing from a woman who was driving with her 5-year-old when she spotted porn playing on a vehicle's 13-inch TV screen. A police officer who happened to see the display pulled over the driver, Sims said, but let him off with a warning.

To Sims, a 23-year police veteran who retired in 2001, playing an explicit movie in view of other motorists or pedestrians is akin to flashing or having sex in a public place.

But Michigan State Police, who have not had any cases of in-car porn, say playing an X-rated movie might not be easy to prosecute unless it can be proved that the motorist intended for others to see it.

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Can we (or should we) even try to regulate this? Is this an issue of protecting children (minors) from seeing this type of material (much like a porno shop that must have its windows covered)?

Jim Rome
 

Clowned this like crazy on his show yesterday. That's all I have to add. But one would think if you're watching pornography, the car wouldn't be the place to do it.

Re: Jim Rome
 

Thank You. We drove by a minivan YESTERDAY and they kids were watching Dora the Explorer. CJ flippped out!!!! DORA MOMMY! DORA MOMMY!! I never thought about him catching a glimpse of a porno flick!:eek: :eek: Dayum.

Re: Jim Rome
 

...not unless you have a low deductible.

I missed the J. Rome debate but why would people have this in the car anyway? As a matter of law aren't the tvs supposed to be in the back seats only --unavailable to the driver who should be driving. So why else would a grown man need to roll with "Chocolate Foam" in the rig? unless these incidents are adolescent boys driving their parents' cars out with their boys, I can't see how/why this is happening so much?

Re: Re: Jim Rome
 

I don't understand it either. Again, if you're going to watch that stuh, go to the trenchcoat theater or lock up your bedroom door. Believe me, I know somebody who did this.;)

Re: Re: Jim Rome
 

Unless the vehicle is parked somewhere and hubby has to sneak out and watch his "movies" to keep from getting in trouble with the wife? :confused:

I don't know. Only a carload of boys would drive around watching flicks together! *lol* :cool:

[

HC this is alll I saw on walking down the Avenue in Myrtle Beach Bike Week last year? NASTY!!!

While we were coming back from Charlotte last night, we passed a van that was playing a cartoon on their tv. My friend commented that it was quite refreshing to see this rather than videos and pornos.

ETA: Not just teenagers...grown men are driving around with crap like that in their rides!

Re: Re: Jim Rome
 

Ok...I just told my co-worker about this and was like "Oh yeah. I was drivng down the NJ turnpike and saw one and it wasn't the first time" :confused:

Ideal08 and I saw it a few years ago in a convertible something or the other in Indianapolis. . .we BELIEVE it was 2 women but we could not really tell because they were kind of CLEOish. . .(think Set it Off).

Re: Re: Re: Jim Rome
 

Detroit? S.Carolina, N.J. ....what is up with all the dudes having to go "Skin-a-max" in the Dodge Durango at 75 m.p.h.?

As Roberta Flack once sang, "Where is the Love?" :eek:

I see them all the time. I don't want to mess with any man that sits in car and watches flicks with a bunch of guys. What do they do once they get "turned on"? Things that make you go hmmm....

i so so so agree with you!! i see dudes at the club (back in my clubbing days...last year:p ) driving around playing that mess in their cars. and i'm thinking "what kind of man HAS to have porn playing even in the car??!!" me thinks one who aint gettin none ;)

co signing
 

i didnt think it was that common (to have the tv screens in the headrest)! i have only seen this maybe 2 years ago...mad people were crowded around some guy's escalade, and heads are looking at the porn! not even porn, just some basement jamaican chicks droppin it and all that mess. naaaaaaaasty!

i would say there should be a law having owners tint their windows with tv screens in the corresponding headrest(s), however this may violate some state laws regarding window tinting.

my .02.

p.s. not insulting any jamaicans, but given the area and people of the area this took place, there was a very high chance these women in said video were west indian, more specifically jamaican.

Wait! ITs ilegal to have sex in your car? Damn . . I was committing felonies in high school . . . I thought car-sex was such a long tradition in America it bordered on a Right-of-Passage.

I mean really . . . how many people haven't had sex or at least serious sex-play in a car.

We are not talking about HAVING sex in the car. We are talking about WATCHING in the car on screens.

Tinting the windows won't work because the screens are bright. Dudes down here can have limosine tint (as I call it) on their cars and you can still see the screen because of its illumination. Nothing short of banning it would help the sitaution.