Anti-pornography groups Family Research Council and American Family Association have each issued quotes praising the Justice Department and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for the DOJ decision this month to launch an Obscenity Task Force, which was created specifically for the purpose of investigating and potentially prosecuting adult entertainment providers.The two anti-porn groups used calls for child protection in applauding the DOJ’s latest move against adult entertainment companies.

“It is about time,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “We are thrilled to have some backing in our fight to protect our children.”

“We are encouraged that Attorney General Gonzales intends to follow through with his promise to enforce indecency and obscenity violations.”

The Family Research Council’s website greets visitors with the following claims about pornography: “Pornography is seemingly everywhere these days. It is a gateway to adulterous thoughts, actual adultery, spousal alienation, divorce, family breakdown, and numerous other ills.”

According to Randy Sharp, Director of Special Interests at the American Family Association, the involvement of well known pornography opponent and obscenity prosecutor Bruce Taylor “puts distributors of obscenity on notice that the Justice Department is serious about enforcing the law.” Taylor, who formerly worked with anti-pornography groups before his second term with the DOJ, is currently senior counsel to the DOJ’s Criminal Division.

Adult entertainment is not illegal unless it is found to be obscene, but knowing what is and isn’t obscene is impossible without a decision from a jury resulting from a criminal prosecution.

Sharp also had harsh words for video rental chain Movie Gallery.

“We’ll even help them get the Task Force off to a good start by recommending an investigation into the nation’s largest retail distributor of XXX films,” said Sharp. “Video store chain Movie Gallery and its chairman Joe Malugen have long been purveyors of hard-core porn in hundreds of small towns across America.”

He also attacked adult entertainment on the internet.

“It is equally critical that the [DOJ task force] be aggressive in their approach to obscenity in the area of technology,” said Sharp. “The Internet — and now wireless phones — put our children at risk because parents are virtually helpless in stemming the sheer volume of porn directed at their children.”

The American Family Association works to push a staunchly conservative Christian agenda through legislation. It opposes gay rights and abortion rights, and fights against the teaching of evolution in public schools.