Section 573.010

Title XXXVIII CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT; PEACE OFFICERS AND PUBLIC DEFENDERS

Chapter 573

Effective - 28 Aug 2000, 4 histories, see footnote   (history) 

  573.010.  Definitions. — As used in this chapter the following terms shall mean:

  (1) "Child", any person under the age of fourteen;

  (2) "Child pornography", any obscene material or performance depicting sexual conduct, sexual contact, or a sexual performance, as these terms are defined in section 556.061, RSMo, and which has as one of its participants or portrays as an observer of such conduct, contact, or performance a child under the age of eighteen;

  (3) "Displays publicly", exposing, placing, posting, exhibiting, or in any fashion displaying in any location, whether public or private, an item in such a manner that it may be readily seen and its content or character distinguished by normal unaided vision viewing it from a street, highway or public sidewalk, or from the property of others or from any portion of the person's store, or the exhibitor's store or property when items and material other than this material are offered for sale or rent to the public;

  (4) "Explicit sexual material", any pictorial or three dimensional material depicting human masturbation, deviate sexual intercourse, sexual intercourse, direct physical stimulation or unclothed genitals, sadomasochistic abuse, or emphasizing the depiction of postpubertal human genitals; provided, however, that works of art or of anthropological significance shall not be deemed to be within the foregoing definition;

  (5) "Furnish", to issue, sell, give, provide, lend, mail, deliver, transfer, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit or otherwise provide;

  (6) "Material", anything printed or written, or any picture, drawing, photograph, motion picture film, videotape or videotape production, or pictorial representation, or any recording or transcription, or any mechanical, chemical, or electrical reproduction, or stored computer data, or anything which is or may be used as a means of communication. "Material" includes undeveloped photographs, molds, printing plates, stored computer data and other latent representational objects;

  (7) "Minor", any person under the age of eighteen;

  (8) "Nudity", the showing of postpubertal human genitals or pubic area, with less than a fully opaque covering;

  (9) "Obscene", any material or performance is obscene if, taken as a whole:

  (a) Applying contemporary community standards, its predominant appeal is to prurient interest in sex; and

  (b) The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find the material depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way; and

  (c) A reasonable person would find the material lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value;

  (10) "Performance", any play, motion picture film, videotape, dance or exhibition performed before an audience of one or more;

  (11) "Pornographic for minors", any material or performance is pornographic for minors if the following apply:

  (a) The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the material or performance, taken as a whole, has a tendency to cater or appeal to a prurient interest of minors; and

  (b) The material or performance depicts or describes nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse in a way which is patently offensive to the average person applying contemporary adult community standards with respect to what is suitable for minors; and

  (c) The material or performance, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors;

  (12) "Promote", to manufacture, issue, sell, provide, mail, deliver, transfer, transmute, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, or advertise, or to offer or agree to do the same, by any means including a computer;

  (13) "Sadomasochistic abuse", flagellation or torture by or upon a person as an act of sexual stimulation or gratification;

  (14) "Sexual conduct", actual or simulated, normal or perverted acts of human masturbation; deviate sexual intercourse; sexual intercourse; or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or the breast of a female in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification or any sadomasochistic abuse or acts including animals or any latent objects in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification;

  (15) "Sexual excitement", the condition of human male or female genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal;

  (16) "Wholesale promote", to manufacture, issue, sell, provide, mail, deliver, transfer, transmute, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, or to offer or agree to do the same for purposes of resale or redistribution.

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(L. 1977 S.B. 60, A.L. 1985 H.B. 366, et al., A.L. 1987 H.B. 113, et al., A.L. 1989 H.B. 225, A.L. 2000 S.B. 757 & 602)