stylistic:tone, structural:summarization
Legality and regulations

The legal status of pornography varies widely from country to country. Regulating hardcore pornography is more common than regulating softcore pornography. Child pornography is illegal in almost all countries, and some countries have restrictions on rape pornography and zoophilic pornography.

Pornography in the United States is legal provided it does not depict minors, and is not obscene. The community standards, as indicated in the Supreme Court decision, of the 1973 Miller v. California case determine what constitutes as "obscene". The US courts do not have jurisdiction over content produced in other countries, but anyone distributing it in the US is liable to prosecution under the same community standards. As the courts consider community standards foremost in deciding any obscenity charge, the changing nature of community standards over the course of time and place makes instances of prosecution limited.

In the United States, a person receiving unwanted commercial mail that he or she deems pornographic (or otherwise offensive) may obtain a Prohibitory Order. Many online sites require the user to tell the website they are a certain age and no other age verification is required. A total of 16 states and the Republican Party have passed resolutions declaring pornography a "public health" threat. These resolutions are symbolic and do not put any restrictions but are made to sway the public opinion on pornography. The notion of pornography as a threat to public health is not supported by any international health organization.

The adult film industry regulations in California requires that all performers in pornographic films use condoms. However, the use of condoms in pornography is rare. As porn does better financially when actors are without condoms many companies film in other states. Twitter is the popular social media platform used by the performers in porn industry as it does not censor content unlike Instagram and Facebook.

Pornography in Canada, as in the US, criminalizes the "production, distribution, or possession" of materials that are deemed obscene. Obscenity, in the Canadian context, is defined as "the undue exploitation of sex" provided it is connected to images of "crime, horror, cruelty, or violence". As to what is considered "undue" is decided by the courts, which assess the community standards in deciding whether exposure to the given material may result in any harm, with harm defined as "predisposing people to act in an anti-social manner".

Pornography in the United Kingdom does not have the concept of community standards. Following the highly publicized murder of Jane Longhurst, the UK government in 2009 criminalized the possession of what it terms as " extreme pornography ". The courts decide whether any material is legally extreme or not, conviction for penalty include fines or incarceration up to three years. Content banned includes representations that are considered "grossly offensive, disgusting, or otherwise of an obscene character". While there are no restrictions on depiction of male ejaculation, any depiction of female ejaculation in pornography is completely banned in the UK, as well as in Australia.

In most of Southeast Asia, Middle East, and China, the production, distribution, and possession of pornography is illegal and outlawed. In Russia and Ukraine, webcam modeling is allowed provided it contains no explicit performances; in other parts of the world commercial webcamming is banned as a form of pornography.

Disseminating pornography to a minor is generally illegal. There are various measures to restrict minors' any access to pornography, including protocols for pornographic stores.

Pornography can infringe into basic human rights of those involved, especially when sexual consent was not obtained. Revenge porn is a phenomenon where disgruntled sexual partners release images or video footage of intimate sexual activity of their partners, usually on the Internet, without authorization or consent of the individuals involved. In many countries there has been a demand to make such activities specifically illegal carrying higher punishments than mere breach of privacy, or image rights, or circulation of prurient material. As a result, some jurisdictions have enacted specific laws against "revenge porn".