Jerry Simons pled guilty to failing to register as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 16901-16991, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). The district court sentenced Simons to 24 months imprisonment and 20 years of supervised release. In addition to the standard conditions of supervised release, the court imposed 18 special conditions. Simons appeals four of those special conditions. Because the district court plainly erred in imposing one of the special conditions, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.
I.
On December 4, 2008, a criminal complaint was filed against Simons, charging him with failure to register as a sex offender as required by SORNA, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). The following day, Simons was arrested by United States Marshals in Omaha, Nebraska. A grand jury returned an indictment against Simons on December 17, charging that, having previously been convicted in Kansas of an offense that required him to register as a sex offender, he traveled in interstate commerce to Nebraska and failed to register there. On January 29, 2009, Simons pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement.
The Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) identified two prior convictions that are relevant here: (1) a 2003 Kansas conviction for attempted indecent liberties with a child, for which Simons received 24 months probation, 1 and (2) a 2005 Oklahoma conviction for first degree rape by force and fear, for which Simons received a 30-year suspended sentence. As a result of his 2003 Kansas conviction, Simons was required to register as a sex offender under SORNA; Simons had last registered in Kansas in 2007. Simons had a base offense level of 16, which the district court reduced to 13 based on his acceptance of responsibility pursuant to United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual, § 3E1.1(b) (Nov.2009). Given Simons’s 4 criminal history points, his advisory Guidelines sentencing range was 24-30 months imprisonment. Pursuant to the plea agreement, both parties asked the district court to sentence Simons at the low end of the Guidelines range. The plea agreement was silent as to any conditions *478 of supervised release to be imposed by the court.
The district court followed the parties’ recommendations and sentenced Simons to 24 months imprisonment. The court also placed Simons on supervised release for a term of 20 years. In addition to the standard conditions of supervised release, the district court imposed 18 special conditions of release recommended by the probation office, of which 4 are relevant here:
3. Paragraph # 7 of the Standard Conditions of supervision is modified, i.e., instead of merely refraining from excessive use of alcohol, the defendant shall not purchase or possess, use, distribute, or administer any alcohol, just the same as any other narcotic or controlled substance ....
5. The defendant shall have no contact, nor reside with children under the age of 18, including his/her own children, unless approved in advance by the U.S. Probation Officer in consultation with the treatment providers. The defendant must report all incidental contact with children to the U.S. Probation Officer and the treatment provider. Should the defendant have incidental contact with a child, the defendant is required to immediately remove him/herself from the situation and notify his/her U.S. Probation Officer within 24 hours of this contact.
6. The defendant shall not access or come within 500 feet of schools, school yards, parks, arcades, playgrounds, amusement parks, or other places used primarily by children under the age of 18 unless approved in advance by the U.S. Probation Officer....
13. The defendant shall neither possess nor have under his/her control any material, legal or illegal, that contains nudity or that depicts or alludes to sexual activity or depicts sexually arousing material. This includes, but is not limited to, any material obtained through access to any computer, including a computer for employment purposes, or any other material linked to computer access or use.
(Appellant’s
II.
Simons appeals the imposition of the four special conditions of his supervised release detailed above. We generally review the imposition of special conditions for an abuse of discretion.
See United States v. Carlson,
Although a district court “is afforded wide discretion when imposing terms of supervised release,”
United States v. Crume,
First, the special conditions must be “reasonably related” to five matters: the nature and circumstances of the offense, the defendant’s history and characteristics, the deterrence of criminal conduct, the protection of the public from further crimes of the defendant, and the defendant’s educational, vocational, medical or other correctional needs. 18 U.S.C. §§ 3583(d)(1), 3553(a)(1), (a)(2)(B), (а) (2)(C), (a)(2)(D); United States v. Fields,324 F.3d 1025 , 1026-27 (8th Cir.2003). Second, the conditions must “involve[ ] no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary” to advance deterrence, the protection of the public from future crimes of the defendant, and the defendant’s correctional needs. 18 U.S.C. §§ 3583(d)(2), 3553(a)(2)(B), (a)(2)(C), (a)(2)(D). Finally, the conditions must be consistent with any pertinent policy statements issued by the sentencing commission. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d)(3).
Crume,
A.
It is a standard condition of supervised release that the defendant “refrain from excessive use of alcohol.” U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(c)(7). Special condition 3 modifies that standard condition, providing that Simons “shall not purchase or possess, use, distribute, or administer any alcohol.” Simons argues that this condition is not reasonably related to him, his offense, de *480 terrence, or protection of the public, as required by 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d)(1). He argues that there is no evidence that he is an alcohol abuser or that alcohol contributed in any way to his present conviction. The government counters that Simons’s self-reported manic-depressive disorder, 3 combined with his dishonesty about his alcohol use, was a sufficient basis for the district court to impose a complete ban on alcohol.
The evidence before the district court at the sentencing hearing was that Simons consumed alcohol one to three times per month, with his last reported use in December 2008. Simons also reported that he first used marijuana at the age of 12, and that he used it a few times until June 2003. Simons reported that he was diagnosed with manic-depressive disorder as a child and that he was prescribed and took medication for this condition while he was incarcerated in 2007. However, he could not provide the names of the medications he took nor the name of the institution where he was diagnosed. Additionally, the district court was aware that an application to revoke Simons’s suspended 30-year Oklahoma sentence had been filed for his “failure to report to the probation office, failure to provide an accurate address, failure to pay fines and costs, and failure to successfully complete sex offender counseling, as well as the results of a polygraph examination showing that he was being deceptive concerning the use of alcohol and having contact with minor children.” (PSR ¶ 30.)
Our prior reviews of special conditions imposing complete bans on alcohol have yielded mixed results. In general, we have upheld such bans for defendants with substance-abuse problems.
See United States v. Behler,
Given this precedent, we question whether Simons’s self-reported manic-depressive disorder, coupled with an application to revoke his suspended sentence in Oklahoma due, at least in part, to dishonesty about his alcohol use, is sufficient to justify a 20-year ban on using or possessing alcohol. However, even assuming the district court erred in imposing this special condition, we do not believe that it rises to the level of plain error.
See United States v. Bongiorno,
B.
Special condition 5 prohibits Simons from having any contact with children under the age of 18, including his own children, unless the contact is approved in advance by his probation officer. It also requires Simons to report any incidental contact he has with children. Simons argues that prohibitions on contact with children are appropriate only for defendants convicted of serious crimes, such as possession of child pornography, and not for what he characterizes as relatively minor offenses, such as failure to register as a sex offender. Thus, he argues that the condition involves a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d)(2).
Simons is correct that we have often upheld conditions like special condition 5 for defendants convicted of child pornography offenses.
See, e.g., United States v. Kerr,
In many of our cases affirming no-contact conditions, we have cited a defendant’s history of sexual abuse of minors as a factor in our decisions.
See, e.g., Mark,
C.
Special condition 6 prohibits Simons from coming within 500 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, or other places used primarily by children under the age of 18, unless he secures prior approval from his probation officer. Simons argues that this condition is unnecessarily restrictive, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d)(1), as it bears no relationship to his offense or criminal history.
We have previously upheld conditions prohibiting a defendant from visiting places where children congregate.
See Crume,
We find the reasoning in Stults persuasive. First, given Simons’s history of committing crimes against children, a ban on coming near places where children congregate is consistent with the district court’s duty to protect the public from Simons’s future crimes. Second, as in Stults, Crume, and Ristine, special condition 6 is not a complete ban. Simons may still come within 500 feet of places used primarily by children, as long as he has the *483 prior approval of his probation officer. Such “[cjonditions requiring the prior approval of a probation officer are consistently upheld.” Stults, 575 F.3d at 853 (quotation omitted). Finally, although a prohibition on coming within 500 feet of a place where children congregate is stricter than a prohibition on merely being in such places, this does not change our analysis. Although Simons claims that this will “restrict where [he] lives, works, drives, shops, and eats,” those concerns are alleviated by the fact that his probation officer can approve, in advance, certain exceptions to the 500-foot prohibition. Thus, we hold that the district court did not plainly err in imposing special condition 6.
D.
Special condition 13 prohibits Simons from possessing or having under his control “any material, legal or illegal, that contains nudity or that depicts or alludes to sexual activity or depicts sexually arousing material.” (Appellant’s
Prohibitions on the possession of pornographic materials are not unusual special conditions, and they have often withstood First Amendment challenges.
See, e.g., Stults, 575
F.3d at 854-55 (upholding, on plain error review, a child-pornography defendant’s ban on “accessing, viewing, or possessing any pornographic sexually oriented or sexually stimulating materials”) (quotation and alteration omitted);
Boston,
To our knowledge, the Seventh Circuit is the only federal court to have addressed a special condition similar to the one at issue here. In
United States v. Holm,
The government attempts to save special condition 13 by analogizing it to cases like
Stults, Boston,
and
Ristine,
which upheld prohibitions on possessing pornography, essentially arguing that special condition 13 was intended to prohibit Simons from viewing or possessing pornography. But special condition 13 goes well beyond the conditions upheld in those cases. Whatever the definition of “pornography,”
4
it includes more than mere nudity.
See Jenkins v. Georgia,
The government also argues that the probation office and, ultimately, the district court can act to limit the reach of special condition 13 to obscene materials or pornography, thereby bringing it within the reach of
Stults, Boston,
and
Ristine.
In essence, the government argues that if special condition 13 is administered in a
*485
way that infringes on Simons’s First Amendment rights, the district court can step in and correct the problem. The plain language of special condition 13, however, includes no mechanism for prior approval by the probation office, unlike special conditions 5 and 6. And having the district court determine, on a case-by-case, if material that Simons possesses violates special condition 13 is an inefficient way of determining the lawful scope of the condition. While it is true that “[e]ondemned to the use of words, we can never expect mathematical certainty from our language[,]”
Grayned v. City of Rockford,
III.
For the reasons stated above, we affirm special conditions 3, 5, and 6, vacate special condition 13, and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Notes
. In February 2005, Simons’s Kansas probation was revoked for the following violations: (1) new convictions in Missouri and Oklahoma; (2) failure to attend treatment; (3) leaving the jurisdiction without permission; (4) failure to make payments; and (5) failure to complete an evaluation. Simons served 14 months in prison for the violations. (See PSR ¶ 29.)
. While we agree with the government’s belated argument that we should review only for plain error, we note that the government's failure to raise this argument in its brief or its letter to this Court under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(j) has hindered Simons’s ability to adequately respond and, in turn, our ability to decide the issue after hearing reasoned argument from both parties.
. Manic-depressive disorder, also called bipolar disorder, is a mood disorder "characterized by episodes of a very high, often irritable, expansive mood that can be accompanied with things like impulsive behavior, disturbed sleep, decreased need for sleep, [and] rapid speech,” combined with "separate depressive episodes which are low, depressed, sad moods that also have sleep/appetite disturbances.” Sig
ala v. Quarterman,
. Although the definition of ''obscenity” has been thoroughly examined by the Supreme Court, culminating in the now-familiar
Miller
test,
see Miller v. California,
