"Poop Dogg" wrote in message ...
"Gordon Burditt" wrote in message ...
This, I think, includes the possibility that I could be arrested
for having a nude picture of *MYSELF* as a baby (and when I was a
baby in the 50s I don't think such baby pictures were considered
particularly unusual or shocking, including the baby-on-a-bear-skin-rug.
Offhand I don't know where that scrapbook is, or whether there are
any actual nude pictures in it.
...
Not only that, I believe that you can be arrested for pictures of
naked CARTOON children, regardless of the actual age of the cartoons.
If the cartoons portray them as children, even if they look like
they qualified for Social Security 50 years ago, it's still kiddie
porn.

I believe that the Supreme Court ruled in the last several years
that even photos of clothed children could be considered child
pornography if the images seem to focus excessively on the groin
area. But the SC ruled last year that simulated images are
protected, I suppose it would cover the cartoon images you describe.
This led to an outcry that perverts would soon be generating tons
of computer-simulated pornography depicting fake children engaged
in sex (I have yet to hear of any encounters of such porn).

Actually, I don't think this was the worry. I thought this was
stupid too initially. What, we're going to prosecute people
for looking at fake pictures? What next, if we catch you
fantasizing about something illegal we'll lock you up? All those
people who like playing first-person-shooter games get
put away for mass murder?

However, while the case was being debated, I heard a law prof
talk about it on NPR and he brought up what I thought was a
good point. Apparently the problem is that if simulated images are
legal, anyone prosecuting a child porn case might be called upon to
*prove* the images aren't simulated by producing the child in
question. As simulated images get more and more realistic, failure
to prove that an image involves a real child might convince a jury
that there's reasonable doubt about a crime being committed,
allowing child pornographers to go free (since it'd be nearly
impossible to find the child a lot of the time).

This seemed less stupid to me. I don't know if it's actually
happened yet though.

Beth