Cite as: 518 U. S. 727 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
It adds that, in any event, the First Amendment, as applied in Pacifica, "does not require that regulations of indecency on television be subject to the strictest" First Amendment "standard of review." Brief for Federal Respondents 11.
We agree with the Government that protection of children is a "compelling interest." See supra, at 743. But we do not agree that the "segregate and block" requirements properly accommodate the speech restrictions they impose and the legitimate objective they seek to attain. Nor need we here determine whether, or the extent to which, Pacifica does, or does not, impose some lesser standard of review where indecent speech is at issue, compare 438 U. S., at 745- 748 (opinion of Stevens, J.) (indecent materials enjoy lesser First Amendment protection), with id., at 761-762 (Powell, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (refusing to accept a lesser standard for nonobscene, indecent material). That is because once one examines this governmental restriction, it becomes apparent that, not only is it not a "least restrictive alternative" and is not "narrowly tailored" to meet its legitimate objective, it also seems considerably "more extensive than necessary." That is to say, it fails to satisfy this Court's formulations of the First Amendment's "strictest," as well as its somewhat less "strict," requirements. See, e. g., Sable, 492 U. S., at 126 ("compelling interest" and "least restrictive means" requirements applied to indecent telephone communications); id., at 131 (requiring "narrowly tailored" law); Turner, 512 U. S., at 641 (using "heightened scrutiny" to address content-neutral structural regulations of cable systems); id., at 662 (quoting " 'no greater than . . . essential' " language from United States v. O'Brien, 391 U. S. 367, 377 (1968), as an example of "heightened," less-than-strictest, First Amendment scrutiny); Central Hudson, 447 U. S., at 566 (restriction on commercial speech cannot be "more extensive than is necessary"); Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc., 515 U. S. 618, 624 (1995) (restriction must be "narrowly drawn"); id., at 632 (there must be a
755
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