Final answer:
The 'average person' standard, alongside 'contemporary community standards,' 'prurient interest,' 'patently offensive,' and 'no value' are used under the Miller test to determine obscenity, which is not protected by the First Amendment and can vary by locality.
Step-by-step explanation:
The terms 'average person,' 'contemporary community standards,' 'prurient interest,' 'patently offensive,' and 'no value' hold significant importance in determining the obscenity of material under the Miller test, established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Miller v. California (1973). According to this test, for material to be deemed obscene, an average person must find that the work, applying contemporary community standards, appeals to the prurient interest. It must also depict sexual conduct in a patently offensive way as defined by state law, and the work must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value when taken as a whole.
Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, and therefore material meeting these criteria can be subject to legal action. The application of contemporary community standards suggests that the measure of obscenity can vary by locality, reflecting different communities' thresholds for offensive material. Additionally, the Internet poses challenges for applying the Miller test due to the lack of a unifying community standard. These intricacies show the complexity and nuance involved in determining what constitutes obscenity and upholding the balance between freedom of expression and community standards of decency.