Affidavit in ACLU, et al v. Reno 

I, John M. Troyer of San Francisco, California, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 

1. I am currently a graduate student in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department at the University of California, San Francisco. I also maintain an archive of information on the World Wide Web known as the Safer Sex Page. It can be accessed without payment at http://www.safersex.org/. 

2. The Safer Sex Page began in June 1994. It is currently housed on a computer located in San Francisco. At the current time, I estimate over 35,000 people visit the site each week. I maintain the Safer Sex Page as a public service. I receive no payment and charge no access fees for the site. I am currently recruiting a group of volunteers to help maintain and organize the site, although I remain the editor and publisher. 

3. The purpose of the Safer Sex Page is to provide information on safer sex and to allow for a frank and open discussion of sexual acts and practices. It is meant to address a growing public health problem by dispensing information. 

4. The Safer Sex Page is composed of two separate components: the information pages and the Safer Sex Forum. The information pages include brochures about safer sex, HIV transmission, and condoms, as well as resources for health educators and counselors. The Safer Sex Forum allows users to add their own comments to a monthly discussion topic or engage in a dialogue on other issues. The Safer Sex Page includes textual, graphic, audio, and video material. 

5. I have two main duties with regard to the Safer Sex Page. The first duty is deciding what material to post on the information pages. Some of the brochures I post are based on information received from other groups including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. Other brochures are written specifically for the Safer Sex Page by myself and other volunteers. I alone decide what to include and exclude from the site. Although I have received informal feedback on this material from many experts in public health education, I am currently organizing a more formal advisory panel to review the content of the site. The second duty is monitoring the discussion on the Safer Sex Forum. 

6. By its very nature, information about safer sex includes explicit language and pictures. Discussions about safer sex include explicit language. Explicitness is necessary for comprehensibility. The public health threat of unsafe sex demands that people understand how to protect themselves. 

7. In this age of AIDS, the Safer Sex Page can help save lives by providing information about safer sex practices. The Safer Sex Page also provides information helpful in avoiding other sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. The Safer Sex Page provides a valuable public service to the many people who visit the site. 

8. I believe the Safer Sex Page is a service that should be available to teenagers as well as adults. High school and college students are one of the principal target audiences of the site. Although it is important to discuss abstinence as a way to prevent the negative consequences of sexual activity, simply telling teenagers to abstain from sex is insufficient. Realistically, many teenagers will choose to be sexually active. These teenagers are entitled to information that could save their lives and they are entitled to that information in an accessible way. The safer sex information teenagers receive should not be too clinical or too abstract. Rather, teenagers are entitled to factual, descriptive information that lets them know the consequences of sexual activity and how to avoid those consequences. In other words, the information must be presented in a way that teenagers can understand. 

9. The Safer Sex Page contains a disclaimer that explains that it includes explicit material that may offend some people. There is also an alternative entrance to the site stating that parental discretion is advised for those under the age of 18. Other sites linking to the Safer Sex Page may choose to point to this alternative entrance. However, although there is technology that might prevent minors from accessing the Safer Sex Page, I do not want to implement such a system. I believe that people who wish to do so should be able to access the Safer Sex Page anonymously. Otherwise, some people might forego important health information. Further, the money and time required to institute an application and password system or other access restriction for the tens of thousands of people who visit the Safer Sex Page would be prohibitive. I would be unable to continue to volunteer my time and to offer the Safer Sex Page at no cost. Any system I put in place would be vulnerable to forged applications or borrowed passwords. Additionally, for the reasons related above, it would compromise the Safer Sex Page's mission to prevent minors from accessing it. I do not have the time to create two versions of the information, one of which does not contain explicit material. Such a strategy would also decrease the educational value of the censored version. Additionally, different portions of the Safer Sex Page have differing levels of explicitness. However, the appropriateness of information on safer sex cannot be decided solely based on age, but depends on maturity as well. Thus, even if I were to go through each screen to determine its appropriateness, I would not be able to give an exact age requirement. I have no problem if people use screening software when accessing the Safer Sex Page. This method of restricting access is easier than the use of applications and passwords. 

10. The information pages include, among other postings, the following material that could be considered "indecent" or "patently offensive": guidelines regarding the HIV transmission risks of certain sexual acts; information about the use of dental dams during oral sex; discussion of lesbian sexual acts; an explicit cartoon showing how to use a condom; a video of a woman putting a condom on a realistic-looking plastic model penis; and a video of a man putting a condom on his penis. 

11. The Safer Sex Forum includes explicit language about sexual acts and practices. Past topics have included condom brands, how to talk about safer sex with a sex partner, and masturbation. I currently edit out submissions to the forum that are unreadable or unresponsive. For instance, I edit out submissions that are immature or do not advance the discussion. I only remove entries; I do not edit or change the content of submissions that are included in the Forum. The value of the Forum comes from people discussing their concerns and behaviors in their own voices. 

12. I do not know how to define "indecent" or "patently offensive." I am unsure to what materials on the Safer Sex Page these terms would apply. The very idea of the Safer Sex Page openly available on the Internet, or giving out information on condoms and other forms of birth control could be considered "indecent" or "patently offensive" to some people. Thus, I am concerned that some of the material I have posted on the information pages and some of the discussions in the Safer Sex Forum would be considered "indecent" or "patently offensive." 

13. I am currently planning to post material including anatomical photos of male and female genitalia, transcripts of interviews in which teenagers speak about their sexual activities, and articles describing how to eroticize safer sex precautions. I have not yet made a final decision about what I would do if a law prohibiting dissemination of "indecent" or "patently offensive" material goes into effect. 

14. If a law prohibiting "indecent" or "patently offensive" online material goes into effect, I am unsure whether I would change the way I monitor the Safer Sex Forum. 

15. With regard to both the information pages and the Safer Sex Forum, if I do decide not to post material that could be considered "indecent" or "patently offensive," the result will be a relative increase in bland, less descriptive information and dialogue as well as an increase in technical information and dialogue. Conversely, there would probably be a decrease in useful, descriptive information and dialogue. The Safer Sex Page's purpose would be compromised. 

16. If a law prohibiting "indecent" or "patently offensive" material goes into effect, I fear that online services and other access providers will ban communications that they consider potentially "indecent" or "patently offensive." This would deprive the Safer Sex Page and its visitors of the ability to communicate on important issues. 

17. I currently provide links that allow users of the Safer Sex Page to easily visit other sites with similar information. Further, the sites to which I am linked in turn are linked to still other sites, creating an endless chain. I am not responsible for the material presented in the sites I link to, nor would it be feasible to screen the whole chain of linked sites for material that could be considered "indecent" or "patently offensive." 

18. In addition to maintaining the Safer Sex Page, I also use other online services that include explicit language. For instance, I sometimes answer questions on safe sex on the Usenet at alt.safe.sex. I do not want to have to censor my submissions. Further, I want to be able to read material on online services other than the Safer Sex Page that might be considered "indecent" or "patently offensive." 

John M. Troyer 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this ___ day of February, 1996 

Notary Public