The lawful definition of pornography in the U.S. evolved through decades, from the 1960s. In this period, recognizing ambiguities, the term "sexually explicit content" gained use as one of the pornography's euphemisms,Youth, Pornography and the Internet, National Academy Press, 2002. but later it was determined that a distinction between pornographic and sexually explicit content is completely artificial.United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Crime. Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988. 1989 In Miller v. California the Supreme Court used the definition of pornography made by Webster's Third New International Dictionary of 1969 ("a depiction (as in a writing or painting) of licentiousness or lewdness: a portrayal of erotic behavior designed to cause sexual excitement"). Black's Law Dictionary followed the Miller test and defined pornography as material that taken as a whole the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find appealing to the prurient interest. Heinle's Newbury House Dictionary of American English (2003) defined pornography as "obscene writings, pictures, or films intended to arouse sexual desire".
