# Traci Lords in Sept 1984 Penthouse **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 15, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301 "2015-09-15T00:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301/21 "2015-09-16T02:24:07Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If this is the case, then why do porn magazines go to such lengths to ensure their models are eighteen? If what you’re saying is correct, a magazine could openly sell pictures of women under eighteen as long as they’re not engaged in actual sex. There’s obviously a market for people that would like to look at nude sixteen and seventeen year olds but nobody is trying to sell to it. This suggests that there are legal restrictions against using under-eighteen nude models. I’ve been trying to find that tightened law of 1967 (if it exists) with no luck. Every site I do find has a disclaimer like [this one](http://www.eleganteye.com/minimum-age-models-nude/): > [@](#): > > Above, I mentioned photographing and publishing nudes of someone who is 18 and the age of majority. There is actually nothing automatically illegal about nude photographs of minors. Think of images you have seen of babies, medical images, family photos, and the like. But for the type of images that you see on this web site, it is best to play it safe. Remember that 18 is not always the minimum. Check the laws in your area and, if in doubt, consult a legal expert. In most times and places, prosecution for nude images of under-18 models will be automatic and successful because sexualization is assumed. Even without prosecution, distribution will be difficult. I wouldn’t advise ever doing so. Yet historic examples of mere nudes do exist without prosecution. For that matter, nudist publications abound and many have family pictures, almost the definition of non-sexualized nudes. These have been attacked at various times and places but I don’t recall any notable cases in recent years. A line must exist in the law. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301/22 "2015-09-16T05:11:50Z")
I’m no a lawyer but here’s the federal law as written: knowingly possesses, or knowingly accesses with intent to view, any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, computer disk, or any other material that contains an image of child pornography… [Page Not Found | GovInfo](http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/html/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap110-sec2252A.htmIt) seems to me (again, IANAL) that the weasel word _knowingly_ could be problematic for prosecutors. The seller and the buyer can argue that they had no knowledge that the centerfold featured an underage model. After all, it’s a major US magazine. EBAY can argue that they had no knowledge either but they can/will flag that item in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301/23 "2015-09-16T07:53:04Z")
> [@SpyOne](#): > > But the Traci Lords photos in Penthouse were (probably) illegal when they were published. Penthouse ran those photos because they believed them to be of a person named Kristie Elizabeth Nussman who was 22, but they really were of someone named Nora Louise Kuzma who was 15 or 16 at the time. I’m pretty sure Lords was 17 when the Penthouse pictorial was shot. But yes, they were fooled by the same fake ID she used to first do porn (and fooled the US Govt with to get a passport)… ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301/24 "2015-09-16T13:56:36Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I’m pretty sure Lords was 17 when the Penthouse pictorial was shot. But yes, they were fooled by the same fake ID she used to first do porn (and fooled the US Govt with to get a passport)… Well, wikipedia says she was born May 7 1968, and appeared in the September 1984 Penthouse. She started nude modeling in February, turned 16 in May, and made her first adult film in October. Thing is, I don’t know when the “September 1984” issue of Penthouse actually came out (I often get magazines dated “February” before Christmas, but sometimes get “August” near the end of September), and I don’t know how far in advance those pictures were taken. So I can’t be more exact than “15 or 16” for how old she was. Her pictorial in Velvet apparently ran while she was still 15, as wikipedia says she dropped out of school because fellow students recognized her from it. Remember, with the exception of _Traci, I Love You_, she was under 18 in every single adult film she made, and her adult film career started after being the centerflod in the best-selling issue of Penthouse ever. Since she made adult films for roughly 20 months, she couldn’t have been 17 in those photos. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301/25 "2015-09-16T14:06:21Z")
> [@SpyOne](#): > > Well, wikipedia says she was born May 7 1968, and appeared in the September 1984 Penthouse. > She started nude modeling in February, turned 16 in May, and made her first adult film in October. > Thing is, I don’t know when the “September 1984” issue of Penthouse actually came out (I often get magazines dated “February” before Christmas, but sometimes get “August” near the end of September), and I don’t know how far in advance those pictures were taken. So I can’t be more exact than “15 or 16” for how old she was. > Her pictorial in Velvet apparently ran while she was still 15, as wikipedia says she dropped out of school because fellow students recognized her from it. > > Remember, with the exception of _Traci, I Love You_, she was under 18 in every single adult film she made, and her adult film career started after being the centerflod in the best-selling issue of Penthouse ever. Since she made adult films for roughly 20 months, she couldn’t have been 17 in those photos. Vanessa Williams resigned her Miss America crown in July of 1984, so the magazine had to have hit the newsstands in July or earlier. I have no idea of the delay between photos being taken and the magazine being released, but at the most, Lords was 16 yrs & 2 months at the photo shoot. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301/26 "2015-09-16T14:15:43Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > She was portraying a 14-year-old, but was actually 16 when the film was made. > > There is no nudity in Kubrick’s Lolita. Sex between Humbert and Lolita is only hinted at. The subject matter is possibly even more controversial today than it was when it was made, but the film is actually tame by today’s standards. The Lolita as written by Nabakov in his novel is 12 years old. > [@Blake](#): > > In contrast, Brooke Shields appeared fully naked at the age of 12 in “Pretty Baby”. Since she was playing a child prostitute, and one of the nude scenes involved her being “inspected” by a client who she later has sex with, it’s hard to argue that the scenes weren’t sexualised. > > Nonetheless the movie remains legal and freely available throughout the western world. So the odds of a nude still of a 13 year old being illegal seems fairly remote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traci-lords-in-sept-1984-penthouse/731301.md?page=1)