The first of several Federal laws was the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act of 1977, which protected children from the commercial exploitation of child sexual abuse depicted in obscene materials. Because of developments in Supreme Court case law, and especially in response to constitutional challenges of overbreadth and vagueness in the statute, the Act was amended in 1984 and 1986 to protect children from noncommercial sexual exploitation in materials that were not considered to be obscene under the Constitution and to prevent advertising the sale of exploitive materials through magazines, newsletters, and computer bulletin boards. These amendments have withstood challenges of vagueness, overbreadth, violation of right to privacy and lack of scienter and defenses of outrageous government conduct, sufficiency of warrants, and manufactured federal jurisdiction. Future amendments to the Act should prohibit possession of child pornography and define the term lascivious. 280 footnotes.