THE LOVE BOAT cast, 1977. Sure, they may look innocent, but … (Wikipedia).

Now that the Huntington Beach City Council majority has passed an ordinance aimed at limiting “obscenity” and “pornography” in city libraries, I fear the “guardians” they will appoint are in for a bit of a disappointment.

Anything that’s legally “obscene” is – by definition – illegal, which means it’s unlikely to be in any city library. As for “pornography” – an image or text intended to excite naughty feelings – you’d have to wipe out half the movies, television shows and music videos created since 1995 to accomplish that.

For anyone who has turned on a TV set, read a magazine or listened to music, it’s evident that we are awash in suggestive and violent images, and they are often combined.

You can create an arbitrary – and probably highly subjective – line between smut and literature. You can place limits on what a kid can see on his iPad.

You can try to find ways to slap “parental permission required” on TV channels, video games and more.

But everywhere you go, you – and your kids – are exposed to ads and messages on buses and billboards selling us on the benefits of scanty clothing, psychotropic drugs and same-sex canoodling.

Any effort to turn the world we and our children live in back to the Fifties is bound to be futile. It’s trying to hold back the ocean with a teacup.

That ship has sailed. What do you suppose was happening on “The Love Boat,” anyway?