Supreme Court Says Advertising Child Pornography with No Real Children or Even With No Children at All Still Punishable Under Law - 1,443 Views, 1 Comment
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In a decision that could have far-reaching ramifications for thousands of Internet advertisers and businesses, the Supreme Court of the United States this week affirmed a law which criminalizes advertising pornography as involving children even if the children don’t actually exist (such as are CGI), are not actually minors (such as very young looking adults playing the part of underaged children) or, in fact, even if there are no children in the images at all! This week’s decision by the Supreme Court holds that the PROTECT Act (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today) is constitutional in criminalizing the advertising of child pornography for sale or trade even if no actual child is involved - or even if the material itself doesn’t exist. The bottom line is that if you advertise either believing that there are children involved (even when there aren’t), or you intentionally allow someone to believe that what you are advertising involves real children (even when it doesn’t), you face criminal prosecution under the PROTECT Act. The PROTECT Act now applies to “any person who knowingly advertises, promotes, presents, distributes, or solicits” any material which could be construed to be child pornography - or in a fashion intended to convince someone that the material is child pornography depicting real children, even if it doesn’t. Obviously, we don’t condone child pornography, however, the potential here for prosecution of people who have not actually done anything wrong - particularly given how the spread of (dis)information on the Internet can end up completely out of ones’ own hands, and out of control - is disturbing, to say the least.
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Read more:
» Google Sued for Purveying, Profiting from, Child Pornography
» Police Crack Internet Child Porn Ring as Child Pornography and the Law Clash
» Downloading Porn Is the Same as Making Porn, Says Court
For additional similar stories check out our archives on Internet Law, Over 18
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Without knowing whether or not watching child porn results in some future illegal action on the part of the voyeur, it seems to me, offhand, that watching virtual child porn could result in release of sexual tension and ameliorate further action on the part of child predators. Lacking data, I would say that it may be beneficial to permit virtual child porn.
Comment by bigjohn756 — 5/20/2008 @ 11:20 am