Illegal porn?

Factual Questions
1

I heard a interesting question on the radio call in show Love Line the other day.

A young adult male called in and told Dr. Drew and Adam that in his early teens he developed the habit of videotaping himself as he was umm, shaking hands with puberty, so to speak. He was wondering about the legality of possessing the videos now that he was a adult.

I know it would be illegal to disseminate the images but just to posses them? I can see the courts taking the view that as long as the images in question exist they could be disseminated and for that reason seize and destroy them but could they successfully prosecute the possessor.

Makes me wonder that if Narcissus had come across a camcorder things might have been different.

Instead of a daffodil, maybe a potato perhaps? :stuck_out_tongue:

2

I don’t know anything about the legality of owning the tapes, but if I were in his position, I’d destroy those tapes NOW.

Star Wars kid comes to mind…

3

:confused:

4

What did Dr Drew and Adam answer the question with?

5

Star Wars Kid

6

Hm.

Well, in most places, sexually oriented material featuring nude minors is WAAAAAY illegal.

Then again, if it was YOU in the tapes… and the cops busted YOU with the tapes… how illegal is it?

I suspect the laws in question make NO distinction as to whether the nekkid child engaged in sex is you… or any other child. I would therefore expect any sane District Attorney to attempt to nail your ass to the wall.

Therefore, if I owned any tapes of myself as a child spanking the monkey, I would immediately erase the freakin’ things, degauss them, and run them under a large magnet, just to be on the safe side…

And that’s not EVEN touching the Star Wars Kid issue. Somehow, I doubt a zillion different people out there would want to set masturbation to music.

Although the lightsaber special effect could be kind of funny, if it weren’t so wildly illegal…

7

Oh, ok Johnny. Sorry “The Star Wars Kid”(is that trademarked) must have made it under my radar.

Sad, sad. So very sad.

Well, Dr. Drew being a M.D. and Adam being a B.S. (and I don’t mean bachelor of science) they weren’t able to answer the legal question.

8

Obviously the fears wouldn’t be quite the same, Wang-Ka.

But imagine the video somehow getting out onto the internet. The resulting fiasco would involve heated debates over whether or not the tapes are legal, etc etc.

All with this poor guy in the middle. Everyone would know about it. No more anonymity over the telephone for this dude.

I would NOT keep these things around.

9

Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake shake your…

Uh, never mind.

10

IANAL but I can’t see how that would be illegal. The whole point about possessing images of children is to get off to them (presumably). How many people get off to images of themselves naked? I think even the most aggressive DA would have any case laughed out of court myself.

If the videos were in a shared house, or lent to a friend, etc then I think that’s where problems might arise.

11

It was the American philosopher Richard Nixon who once said: “Burn the tapes, just burn the tapes.”

12

Martiju, I might have agreed with that, once.

But I have seen waaay too many DAs who thought they were the voice of freakin’ God, if you know what I mean.

Tape exists. Tape has footage of minor child committing sexual act. Tape is therefore Kiddie Porn. Possessor of Kiddie Porn is therefore a prosecutable felon. ATTACK!

…and I’m inclined to think that as far as most DAs go, this would be all there was to it, really. And I sure wouldn’t wanna be the one to have to argue the case, as well as having to undergo all the media scrutiny (and sniggering of the public and my peers) while I fought the case.

13

Complete WAG here, but really, if its yourself in the tapes? Why would anyone care enough to prosecute?

14

Stats, probably.

At the end of the year their record of convictions will list a win against “KIDDY PORN” but they won’t mention the particulars of the case.

15

I keep thinking about this case I heard about. Wish I could cite it, but durned if I remember the names of the people involved.

Two kids, right? Teeners. Been dating for years. They’re about two and half years apart in age.

He gets her knocked up.

They decide to clue their parents in. The families meet. They argue. They discuss. They finally make peace, and decide to back the kids. The kids decide to have the baby, and get married as soon as legally possible. He’s going to finish school, and get a job, and she’s going to go to college, get her degree, and then put HIM through college. The folks are supportive, and agree to help out with the baby. It’s not going to be easy… but everyone’s determined to make it work.

Oopsie. Due to the placement of his birthday in the year… someone calculates that in order for the dates to match up… when she got preggers… HE was EIGHTEEN, and SHE was FIFTEEN.

…and everyone is very much surprised when the boy is abruptly arrested. Huh? What crime was committed? Who reported this? What the hell is going on?

Oh, dear. Since he was eighteen, he was a legal adult. She was fifteen, and therefore a minor child. The police have arrested our teen hero… and charged him with child molestation.

The parents objected. The daughter objected. What the hell? Why was the city getting involved? We all had this settled just fine, ourselves, thank you. Who reported this? Who has interfered in our family business?

The district attorney told them to go take a flying leap. A crime had been committed, he had been made aware of it, and the criminal suspect would be prosecuted to the limits of his ability to do so. The kid wound up copping a plea, paying a fine, doing a little time served. He is now a Registered Sex Offender and a convicted felon, two tags which will play a major part in his future, I think… and will certainly affect his ability to go to college and support his wife and child.

The entire family, and many other people who heard of the story when it broke, felt that this was quite unnecessary on the part of the law.

The DA has repeatedly made his point clear: The Law Is The Law, And When The Law Is Broken, We Know What To Do.

No matter what.

Since then, I have quit worrying about justice. Ain’t any. There is only law, and the dictates of my conscience.

My conscience is easy to satisfy. All I have to do is do the right thing, and avoid doing the wrong things.

Now, that just leaves the law…

16

Wang-Ka:

I heard a very similar story except the parties in question had actually appeared on a daytime talk show about pregger daughters and someone watching did the math and contacted the D.A. in their area.

Might be a urban myth though.

Meanwhile back at the ranch…

I really think a case like this might actually be tested at some point.

Back in the analog age when I was growing up, personal video recorders were as rare as they were expensive. Certainly no one in my working class neighborhood had access to one. Though in my teens I my self was into 35mm photography including processing. On one occasion I did do some nude studies on my self intending to use them for comparison on my physical growth.

With camcorders so readily available today I can only guess at the
perverse uses that todays morally corrupt younger generation are putting them to. :wink:

17

Got your back on this one: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/08052003_bb_springer.html

18

Prosecuting this young man would be a little like going back to the days in which people were hanged after surviving suicide attempts.

The most obscene part is that if he were thrown in prison, he would be in jeopardy of falling vicitm to sexual assault behind bars. The same society that prosecuted him for perpetrating a “crime” that he also happened to be the “victim” of, would likely offer little protection against the actual criminals he would likely do time with.

That someone would even have to ask this question on a radio call-in program is downright embarassing.

19

oops, apologies for the long quote (meant to cut that back a bit)

20

Not just a UL. There is an enclave of a breakaway sect of polygamist Mormons, so-called Fundimentalist Latter Day Saints or FLDs, in the Arizona strip area north of the Grand Canyon in Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. Colorado City police officer Rodney Holm was set to have trial earlier this month in St. George, Utah for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. Specifically the DA compared the birth certificate of his “child bride” to that of her first child to determine she became pregnant before 18 and could not be legally married to him as he already had a wife. Subsequent plural marriages are “sealed” by FLSD prophet Warren Jeffs but are not recognized by any state.

He is being prosecuted in Utah because they are taking an agressive stance on the issue. Arizona has taken little or no action and while the state constitution bans polygamy there is no criminal statute against it while there is one in Utah that is enforced.

Source, Phoenix New Times August 7, 2003