# Is it illegal to show a girl under the age of 18 nude?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-show-a-girl-under-the-age-of-18-nude/70012>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 24, 2001, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-show-a-girl-under-the-age-of-18-nude/70012 "2001-06-24T23:29:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-show-a-girl-under-the-age-of-18-nude/70012/21 "2001-06-26T14:54:53Z")

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Here’s a decent thread on the same subject from about a year ago:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=31232](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=31232)

As others have said, it’s not illegal (under the US federal child pornography laws) to take nude pictures of people under the age of 18, as long as the context is not explicitly sexual.

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**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-show-a-girl-under-the-age-of-18-nude/70012/22 "2001-06-26T15:02:31Z")

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**handy** Brooke Shields born in 1965, made _Pretty Baby_ in 1978, which makes her 13 at the time. [here](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Shields,+Brooke)  
(the link to the movie was presented earlier, too)

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**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-illegal-to-show-a-girl-under-the-age-of-18-nude/70012/23 "2001-06-26T23:05:04Z")

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Yep, and as has been pointed out in another thread, Brooke was also photographed nude by Karl Gross (how’s that for a name) when she was 10. The legality of those portraits was questioned, but Karl prevailed in court.

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