The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2024 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Title 13 : Crimes and Criminal Procedure
Chapter 063 : Obscenity
(Cite as: 13 V.S.A. § 2801)-
§ 2801. Definitions
As used in this act:
(1) “Minor” means any person less than 18 years old.
(2) “Nudity” means the showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area or buttocks with less than a full opaque covering, or the showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any portion thereof below the top of the nipple, or the depiction of covered male genitals in a discernably turgid state.
(3) “Sexual conduct” means acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse, or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks or, if such person be a female, breast.
(4) “Sexual excitement” means the condition of human male or female genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal.
(5) “Sado-masochistic abuse” means flagellation or torture by or upon a person clad in undergarments, a mask or bizarre costume, or the condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restrained on the part of one so clothed.
(6) “Harmful to minors” means that quality of any description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse, when it:
(A) Predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful, or morbid interest of minors; and
(B) Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community in the State of Vermont as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors; and
(C) Is taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, for minors.
(7) “Advertising purposes” means purposes of propagandizing in connection with the commercial sale of a product or type of product, the commercial offering of a service, or the commercial exhibition of an entertainment.
(8) “Displays publicly” means the 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, sidewalk, or lobby of a building that has unrestricted access by the public. (Amended 1967, No. 340 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 23, 1968; 1973, No. 204 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 1, 2.)
