The Law and You: Child Porn

The internet has made many things in our life easier -- shopping, keeping in touch with distant friends and family, researching, working - everything that counts. Unfortunately it has also made it infinitely easier to break the law. With the prevalence of porn on the internet and the lack of filtering by porn sites of legal from illegal material, you may be needing a criminal lawyer for something you didn’t know you were doing wrong. Miami criminal attorneys with experience in child pornography laws explain the basics.

The facts
The definition of child pornography in the US comes from Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 100, §2256. It designates a 'child' as any person under the age of 18, and for an image or video to be classed as pornography it must contain:
(i) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex;
(ii) bestiality;
(iii) masturbation;
(iv) sadistic or masochistic abuse; or
(v) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person

The inclusion of simulated sex makes these laws much broader -- easier to be charged under, but in some cases easier for a criminal attorney to defend. Publishing the appearance of a minor being engaged in sexual misconduct can also be prosecuted under US law -- so, for example, adult websites displaying models (even legal-age ones) in pigtails, surrounded by stuffed animals and with heavy makeup making them look younger could actually be prosecuted under child pornography laws. People viewing this type of images would also be classed as consuming child porn, and may need criminal attorney services.

The First Amendment protects distribution of adult pornographic images, but not those of children.

Laws can be used against children also
In the US in the last 12-24 months, there have been a spate of cases involving teens taking nude self-portraits and distributing to partners or friends. For example, Florida criminal attorneys recently defended a 16-year-old girl and her 17-year-old boyfriend who faced court after a teacher accidentally uncovered nude images of the girl on the boy's phone. The photos were shared with nobody else, yet the teens were charged with producing, directing or promoting child porn -- even more serious than consumption of child porn.