Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times

Bill sets rules for board to review sex mags

Congress has directed the Pentagon officials to follow new, more specific guidelines on the structure of the internal board that reviews sexually explicit materials to determine whether they can be sold on military installations.

The guidelines are part of the 2009 defense authorization bill passed by both the House and Senate and awaiting President Bush’s signature.

The bill would require the board to have nine people, at least one of whom has experience managing or advocating military family programs, and who also is eligible to shop in the commissaries and exchanges.

In addition, the secretary of defense would appoint six members “to broadly represent the interests of the patron base served by the defense commissary system and the exchange system,” according to the bill.

The other three members would be appointed by the secretaries of the Army, Air Force and Navy.

This is in contrast to current regulations under which the service secretaries appoint one board member from within their respective military exchange systems, for a total of four. The secretaries also each appoint a senior official from within their services to sit on the board.

According to defense officials, the makeup of the board has changed considerably since it first met 10 years ago to carry out the requirements of the Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996.

At times, board members have included active, reserve and retired service members, military spouses, members of dual-military couples and Defense Department civilians. As of September 2007, the board had reviewed 473 titles and determined that 319 were sexually explicit and could not be sold on military installations, according to the Pentagon.

Some military community members and anti-pornography groups have expressed concern about Penthouse and Playgirl magazines being allowed back into the exchanges last year after initially being banned. Those magazines had revamped their formats and were reviewed again under a Pentagon instruction that allows previously banned materials to be reconsidered every five years.