40 years ago: Pornography not harmful?

On August 5, 1970 a draft report of U.S. President Richard Nixon's National Commission on Obscenity and Pornography was publicized, finding that erotic books, films, and magazines did not increase sex crimes or corrupt the morals of youth.

My scholarly reponse to this finding is "Oh, yeah?"--although I suspect that at least some of what was regarded as pornographic, even as late as 1970, would be considered tame today. The movie Joe had been released in theatres just three weeks earlier, and I don't know if Peter Boyle's brief nude scene, which is unlikely to inspire sexual activity of any kind, was used in the Commission's study.

On October 24, 1970 President Nixon called the Commission's conclusions "morally bankrupt," and said that smut "should be outlawed in every state in the union."