South Carolina Code of Laws
Chapter 15 - Offenses Against Morality And Decency
Section 16-15-375. Definitions applicable to Sections 16-15-385 through 16-15-425.

The following definitions apply to Section 16-15-385, disseminating or exhibiting to minors harmful material or performances; Section 16-15-387, employing a person under the age of eighteen years to appear in a state of sexually explicit nudity in a public place; Section 16-15-395, first degree sexual exploitation of a minor; Section 16-15-405, second degree sexual exploitation of a minor; Section 16-15-410, third degree sexual exploitation of a minor; Section 16-15-415, promoting prostitution of a minor; and Section 16-15-425, participating in prostitution of a minor.
(1) "Harmful to minors" means that quality of any material or performance that depicts sexually explicit nudity or sexual activity and that, taken as a whole, has the following characteristics:
(a) the average adult person applying contemporary community standards would find that the material or performance has a predominant tendency to appeal to a prurient interest of minors in sex; and
(b) the average adult person applying contemporary community standards would find that the depiction of sexually explicit nudity or sexual activity in the material or performance is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community concerning what is suitable for minors; and
(c) to a reasonable person, the material or performance taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
(2) "Material" means pictures, drawings, video recordings, films, digital electronic files, or other visual depictions or representations but not material consisting entirely of written words.
(3) "Minor" means an individual who is less than eighteen years old.
(4) "Prostitution" means engaging or offering to engage in sexual activity with or for another in exchange for anything of value.
(5) "Sexual activity" includes any of the following acts or simulations thereof:
(a) masturbation, whether done alone or with another human or animal;
(b) vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse, whether done with another human or an animal;
(c) touching, in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or sexual abuse, of the clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, or buttocks of another person or the clothed or unclothed breasts of a human female;
(d) an act or condition that depicts bestiality, sado-masochistic abuse, meaning flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in a costume which reveals the pubic hair, anus, vulva, genitals, or female breast nipples, or the condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained on the part of the one so clothed;
(e) excretory functions;
(f) the insertion of any part of a person's body, other than the male sexual organ, or of any object into another person's anus or vagina, except when done as part of a recognized medical procedure.
(6) "Sexually explicit nudity" means the showing of:
(a) uncovered, or less than opaquely covered human genitals, pubic area, or buttocks, or the nipple or any portion of the areola of the human female breast; or
(b) covered human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.
HISTORY: 1987 Act No. 168 Section 3; 1991 Act No. 73, Section 2; 1994 Act No. 421, Section 2; 2001 Act No. 81, Section 10.