On the topic of Child Pornography...

[Aractus]

I came across this blog article (you'll have to read through the comments that go all the way to 2013), where John was taken to court in 2006 charged with possessing Child Pornography. He in fact possessed, as identified on his site, ColorClimax material that was not of underage performers and it took him until 2010 to get proof of age for almost every girl in the CCC images that he had been charged with. It surprised me that CC said they had a policy thus: "Please know however that Color Climax has always used a strict company policy of only hiring models of 18 years of age or older." Are they re-writing their own past, or is it legitimate? I actually don't know - I do know they produced bestiality, and I thought that CCC also produced much of the Danish child porn, however that may be wrong and it may be that it was only the smaller companies that produced that material.

It highlights what is wrong with our child pornography laws at the moment. To quote John:

• I was prosecuted ALONE. The research on the pictures, I did myself.
  
  My skills on this type of research (locating pictures on the net) are EXTREMELY good. I only wish I could do this kind of thing for money.
  Assist defense attorney’s in winning these type cases – or legal research. I am due to graduate college this semester with a 2 year AAS degree in computer networking.
  
  The school found out about the case, and as I suspected would happen I was booted off campus, but am allowed to graduate with my degree.
  
  I am available for hire, by any attorney in the country, as a research expert. I have also done many, many, cyber crime cases. I usually get about a 95% conviction rate. These have been prosecuted and resulted in close to life sentences to the criminal in all of the cases.
  
  PLEASE re-read ALL my notes, as they have MUCH good defense information. These cases CAN be won. But it is a VERY difficult VERY long expensive battle.
  
  As far as age based on looking at the picture, this is JUNK science, and can easily be dismissed by researching Turner’s syndrome. Contact a Doctor that has treated Turners, and if necessary bring one of these people to court.
  
  It is impossible for a normal person to guess a person with Turner’s Syndrome age. They stop aging at about 12-13 years old. But can live to 40+ years old. I know a few in this area that are like this. It is a difficult life for them, as they NEVER age AT ALL past 12 years old.
  
  Many Turners Syndrome ladies, in the Porn Industry. I know several by name. Their pictures have been used in multiple child porn cases. They detest this, but rarely are asked to testify.
  
  The age experts are full of crap. Their is NO way to tell age by looking at someone. I got in minor trouble in my last class on campus. The girl looked 20 or older, but was a special student that was admitted to campus at 16. She even showed me her ID. We became friends but nothing more. No one can accurately guess age by looking at a picture or at a person.
  
  In my case we did send the pictures to a well known doctor. Out of 29 images he got 1 correct. The one that was a minor was NOT pornographic so it was dismissed.

I am well aware that this is indeed how child porn possession is prosecuted. This case goes to show how the law works in action, and it has happened to many people that an “expert witness” testifies that the girl or boy depicted “is under the age of 18” and then the onus of proof is completely on the defendant. VHS and 8mm resolution is not good enough in anyone's books to prove age, nor are the scanned airbrushed magazine images.

But let's think about a couple of things first. There are three types of child pornography: there's the stuff that was made legally in Denmark and other European countries, and then there's the stuff produced by child pornography rings (generally parents molesting their own children), and finally there's the "cartoon porn" and although I would absolutely agree that cartoon porn can't classify as child porn, the law sees it otherwise.

Why do we prosecute the possession of child pornography? The most important reason is that it's a legitimate child protection issue, however there's no room for amnesty and that's exactly the problem. In Australia, if I was to find that somebody has child pornography, I can't legally hand it to police - I would be charged with possession of it for merely handing it in. That's the part that worries me, if there's no room for amnesty then how is anyone expected to cooperate with the law?

Why do we care about it? It’s the child exploitation images produced by parents and child pornography(/abuse/prostitution) rings that we need to be concerned with, not the stuff made in the 70’s that’s completely tame compared to American porn anyway. In the 70’s it wasn’t glamorous to be a poor star, and most did the line of work because they couldn’t get other work – look up Robert Kerman – he stared in a few Italian films like Cannibal Holocaust, but couldn’t get work in Hollywood and then did pornographic work, and then no one in Hollywood would hire him because of his pornographic career.