Possession of child pornography is the kind of emotion- charged crime that can lead to aprosecutions and court decisions. Under the Bush administration, prosecuting child porn cases has taken center stage. And even if you've never viewed a child porn image in your entire life, you're at risk.
I'll explain why in a moment. But first, I'll summarize some of the wacky legal theories the anti-porn crusaders have persuaded the courts to enforce.
For instance, if you take a photo of your own children running across a room naked, or taking a bath, you can be imprisoned for "aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor." Your children can also be taken away from you by a child protective services agency to prevent further "exploitation."
If you possess a magazine or video that contains photos of models in sexually suggestive poses that in the opinion of "experts" appear to be under the age of 18, you can be imprisoned for possession of "sexual exploitation of a minor." The models don't even need to be naked. It may be sufficient that in the opinion of "experts," they appear to be under 18 and are in "sexually suggestive" poses for you to be found guilty.
That's true even if the publication contains a stipulation that "all models are over the age of 18." To avoid prison, you may be required to prove each and every model is of legal age, by obtaining copies of their birth certificates, along with proof that they were over 18 when the photos were taken.
But it's on the Internet where the porn police are working overtime. Merely viewing a sexually suggestive image of someone you can't prove is over the age of 18 can land you in prison. You don't even need to save the image; all prosecutors need to do is prove that you viewed it.
How can prosecutors prove that you "viewed" the image? All they need to do is to examine the "cache" files on your computer, where a copy of everything you view on the Internet is automatically saved.
And here is where the real danger lies for the vast majority of us who have no desire to view child porn. Every day, billions of spam messages promoting pornographic Web sites are sent to millions of e-mail addresses—perhaps yours. If you view any of these messages, the images they contain will automatically be stored in your Internet cache. In addition, many Web pages display pop-up messages that contain pornographic images, which are again automatically stored in your Internet cache. Viruses and other "malware" that surreptitiously plant porn on your hard disk are another threat. If any of these images are of people in sexually suggestive poses who appear to be under the age of 18, you could possibly be arrested.
How might police gain access to your computer? Police can obtain your browsing records from your Internet Service Provider without demonstrating "probable cause" that you've done anything illegal. If these records show you've visited pornographic Web sites, that may be enough evidence for a judge to issue a search warrant for your home computer. But even without a search warrant, police can simply walk up to your door, and ask anyone who answers for permission to examine your computer. From there, it could be a short step to arrest and possible imprisonment.
In tomorrow's blog, I'll tell you how to protect yourself from the porn police...until then.
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Nestmann
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