Child Porn Charges for comedian; edited video makes it appear children were listening to dirty song

[Noctis_XZ]

I... wait... what???

Admittedly, he should face possibly a few months in jail for exposing the faces of minors in such a way... But 20 YEARS!? This is... this is just ridiculous... What is our government coming to?

Seriously? You think a YOUTUBE video exposing the faces of minors where the focus is SURELY on the song and the children "present" during it is just to serve for comedic effect is enough to warrant even a FEW months in jail? Hilarious..

This country for lack of a better word has become ungodly pussified. Seriously.. I'm pretty sure in some places children aren't allowed to play tag anymore because it could have "damaging" effects on the child.. not sure if it's tag, but I know it's one of those childhood games.

How exactly could this video have ANY negative effects on the children at all? Knowing children today they would probably think it was ABSOLUTELY hilarious when they became teenagers.

Look.. admittedly he was somewhat stupid. I can sympathize with the parents of the children honestly because if I had a child that without my knowledge or consent was used in ANY kind of video I would be a little upset.. upset to a point, not enough to want the man to face ANY jail time though..

The American legal system is severely messed up. 20 years for editing a video from some no name? Wish the guys going after this kid would get on the people on Wall Street.. you know, the ones who committed fraud on a massive scale and dozens of other financial crimes? Those guys are walking away free with millions of dollars worth of OUR money..

But not to be a party popper.. Go American go! Fixing America and serving justice one comedian at a time

 

[awarner19]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-AVqxkYtg

This says it all on how i feel about this. R.I.P. George the world lost a legend the day you died.
This is just asinine and simply crazy i can see the parents being pissed their children being in a video like this without their consent but not a 20 year felony...

 

[rutger5000]

[
You're absolutely right, but any prison sentence at all is overkill. Sure the parents have the right to be angry, and what he did was wrong. But sending a man to prison ruins his life, and has a huge impact on the people that love him. Do you seriously believe that the man deserve such a heavy punishment?

I want to make three point against your reasoning.
First: Do you seriously think that this will harm the children in any possible way? Personally I think this will only make the parents a little less trusting when it comes to strangers being responsible for their children. (My counter argument)
In other words what the guy did doesn't harm the children at all, however the parents are made to feel a bit less comfortable. I even will go further to say that treating this incident as it being harmful for your children is actually more harmful then any song possibly could be. It sends the message that whenever something even remotely mentions sex you'll have to put your fingers in your ears and go: Lalalalalalalalala! This makes sex a taboo, and that is actually harmful. (My personal opinion, you're free to disagree with this, though I wouldn't raise a child with someone who did.)
Second: For this point I'll use an example. Imagine an wide, long, open and completely empty country road with a speed limit of 60 miles an hour. Now imagine someone breaking that speed limit by 40 miles an hour. What the person did was wrong, and irresponsible. Should he however go to prison for it? Of course not. Yet if you think about it the situation is not truly that different. You send you're children to school believing that they'll be save their, but I suppose you also let you're children out of the house believing they won't be run over by a speeding idiot. In both the example as the whole kiddie-porn-stuff there is no way you're children are harmed even in the slightest way, but both scenarios damage the idea that you're child is safe. And just like in the example sending the perp to prison is completely unreasonable.
Three: You mentioned using his punishment as a deterrent for other potential-criminals. But that logic is completely immoral. It's the same as slicing up someone who committed a minor offence and enters the hospital so that his/her organs can be used to save several people. Those people needed those organs right? And the person did something wrong so he/she deserves punishment right? So slicing him/her up for his/her organs isn't wrong right?
Too summarize my point: The guy didn't harm the children, he harmed the feelings of the parents. The parents now should be a bit angered, some might even feel a bit uncomfortable. However sending a man to prison because he made someone feel uncomfortable is completely unreasonable.

 

[acosn]

Case probably wont go far. If it actually went far enough it'd go to supreme court and they'd just laugh at it because of all the obnoxious precedents it'd set.

I'd probably make the prosecutor's head roll for this as well. I'm not paying tax dollars to have some moron go on a witch hunt like this- if he really, really wanted to go through with a good case he'd go after the guy for using minors in his film without explicit permission. Of course that'd probably also just be a slap on the wrists and a fine.

But this? It'll spent months in court, waste a lot of money, and it'll get no where. Best case scenario nothing happens, worst case scenario someone gets thrown in prison for something he didn't do.

 

[TyroSe7en]

Junky humor is junky humor, but just because a man has disagreeable taste in it DOES NOT WARRANT 20 YEARS + PLACEMENT ON THE SEX OFFENDERS LIST.

What I do call the guy out on is not asking for permission before releasing the edit to use the material in that form. It's one thing when your making a video with your friends who are probably in on the editing process anyways, and another thing to just film people and use the footage however you like it. Any photographer or film maker (hobbyist or professional) that realizes they have a reputation to work with asks before they shoot.

At most I'd say lock him up for a 6 months or a year to shake him up and have him realize there are consequences regarding content you produce to the internet (or any medium for that matter) and should be taken more seriously. I'd also have the video taken down and note that nobody will recognize you as an adult or even as a tween from a video taken at that age. At the end of the day they are generic group of kids #15645 and no one is going to remember them.

 

[Nickolai77]

And because of that, I'm treated like gutter trash and cannot leave my house without a weapon for protection. Or, at least that will be the case when I can legally purchase firearms.

Seriously, I'll hold the baton gays held but can we remove the unneeded addition for us in the form of a flashing sign that says "KILL HIM HE IS OF THE DEVIL!".

Out of curiosity, what it is that your being persecuted for?

 

[iblis666]

Child porn charges were filed against a 21 year old for editing a video to make it look like he was singing a dirty song to a buch of first graders as a comedy bit. He faces 20 years in prison and 25 years on the sex offender with "producing child porn" on his record.

This is pretty fucking scary; arrested on CHILD PORN charges for editing a video to make it SEEM like 6 year olds were listening to his song? And put on the sex offender list? And people are claiming he should go to jail for something that didn't happen?

This is the shit you get when you start putting limits on personal liberties. You get a comedian in prison for NOT... NOT exposing kids to explicit lyrics, and you get dense assholes making him appear to be a child corrupting monster. This is just a different form of the "Cartoon porn should be illegal" argument

The Man Show actually had a child approach women in a sketch where he was asking them for sex. MADTV and SNL have had a lot of sketches that made it appear kids where exposed to sexual things. Hell the video I uploaded a few days ago was entirely about a joke involving a soda mascot that "Grapes kids in the mouth"

That is ridiculous. i can understand both of the sides but on one side i think the fact they are trying to charge him is ridiculous. He did something and it has been going on for years so why is this going on? I don't care about the freedom of speech but this is just pants on head retarded.

What impact could this video he made have? He sang a normal song there and spliced it together to make a gag video. boy do i hate people.

Should the people who make these be arrested?

if your referring to the people that created barney then yes but if you are talking about the people that edited that video with the beeps then no because thats just fucking funny

lol well the person who edited it made it seem like he was saying sexual things around children. Hows it any different?

im sorry? i think you thought i was arguing with you but if you read it carefully you will see that not only do i think that this trial is stupid and has no basis for even being called child porn but that this sort of thing is so absurd that i couldnt help but make the joke that barney its self and as such its creators have causes more harm to children

 

[One of Many]

I think my head's about to explode from the dangerous level of stupid in the story.

 

[Leg End]

And because of that, I'm treated like gutter trash and cannot leave my house without a weapon for protection. Or, at least that will be the case when I can legally purchase firearms.

Seriously, I'll hold the baton gays held but can we remove the unneeded addition for us in the form of a flashing sign that says "KILL HIM HE IS OF THE DEVIL!".

Out of curiosity, what it is that your being persecuted for?

... (O_O)

You mean it isn't obvious? I thought it was...

(O_O)

I am the next in line for the baton.

 

[Nickolai77]

And because of that, I'm treated like gutter trash and cannot leave my house without a weapon for protection. Or, at least that will be the case when I can legally purchase firearms.

Seriously, I'll hold the baton gays held but can we remove the unneeded addition for us in the form of a flashing sign that says "KILL HIM HE IS OF THE DEVIL!".

Out of curiosity, what it is that your being persecuted for?

... (O_O)

You mean it isn't obvious? I thought it was...

(O_O)

I am the next in line for the baton.

Oh sorry, didn't read your post close enough.

But couldn't you have kept it secret? Or did things get complicated?

 

[Computer-Noob]

I love how they have him totally shackled like that. Really respectful of his rights. Oh wait, those dont actually exist.

 

[Karma168]

Too summarize my point: The guy didn't harm the children, he harmed the feelings of the parents. The parents now should be a bit angered, some might even feel a bit uncomfortable. However sending a man to prison because he made someone feel uncomfortable is completely unreasonable.

This pretty much sums it up.

OT: Kiddie porn involves creating something involving children that is made to elicit a sexual response. making a video where it appears that you are saying naughty words to children is not kiddie porn. By that logic we have to arrest Lady Gaga, if disco stick is not about sex then i don't know what is.

The only reason this is even being brought to court is that the parents are pissed that their children were used in the video, if he had blurred the kids faces out then there could be no case. At worst he faces using the image of a minor without parental consent.

 

[Leg End]

And because of that, I'm treated like gutter trash and cannot leave my house without a weapon for protection. Or, at least that will be the case when I can legally purchase firearms.

Seriously, I'll hold the baton gays held but can we remove the unneeded addition for us in the form of a flashing sign that says "KILL HIM HE IS OF THE DEVIL!".

Out of curiosity, what it is that your being persecuted for?

... (O_O)

You mean it isn't obvious? I thought it was...

(O_O)

I am the next in line for the baton.

Oh sorry, didn't read your post close enough.

But couldn't you have kept it secret? Or did things get complicated?

For now, it is a secret. But if you look at how ignorant people around here are and how easy they anger, you'll see why I feel the need to have protection in the form of a shotgun under my bed and a revolver on my person at all times. For now, my hands work well. :/

But, things are about to get a whole lot more complicated in the coming months...

Though, it might be better that we discuss this elsewhere, lest we derail the thread.

 

[IronicBeet]

I agree he deserves some prison time, but not for the charges bought against him. He exploited the trust of the people who were involved and should get like 5 years for that but he is no threat to anyone and this does not require the full extent of a law that is being stretched to meet the situation (and a win could see it further stretched as well).
Lets hope they loose completely (though as said before he does deserve something, just not this charge)

5 years? Are you insane?

 

[sylekage]

Funny word in the first post. He EDITED the video. He didn't do it while he was there, the kids didn't actually hear it because he EDITED the lyrics in! Do people turn their brains off when listening to somebody?
"Sir I edited those lyrics in, I'm a comedian and people think it's funny, I never had those kids listen to it."
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. You're a pedophile and make child pornography. Get in the vehicle sir."
"You didn't hear what I just said!"
"Taze him."
Idiots. The lot of them. God dammit.

 

[Leg End]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-AVqxkYtg

This says it all on how i feel about this. R.I.P. George the world lost a legend the day you died.
This is just asinine and simply crazy i can see the parents being pissed their children being in a video like this without their consent but not a 20 year felony...

Your first post ever since you signed up 1.5 years ago and I love you. Congrats.

Um... Welcome To The Escapist? Not sure if mandatory welcome is needed for people who have been signed up for 1.5 years...

 

[Nickolai77]

And because of that, I'm treated like gutter trash and cannot leave my house without a weapon for protection. Or, at least that will be the case when I can legally purchase firearms.

Seriously, I'll hold the baton gays held but can we remove the unneeded addition for us in the form of a flashing sign that says "KILL HIM HE IS OF THE DEVIL!".

Out of curiosity, what it is that your being persecuted for?

... (O_O)

You mean it isn't obvious? I thought it was...

(O_O)

I am the next in line for the baton.

Oh sorry, didn't read your post close enough.

But couldn't you have kept it secret? Or did things get complicated?

For now, it is a secret. But if you look at how ignorant people around here are and how easy they anger, you'll see why I feel the need to have protection in the form of a shotgun under my bed and a revolver on my person at all times. For now, my hands work well. :/

But, things are about to get a whole lot more complicated in the coming months...

Though, it might be better that we discuss this elsewhere, lest we derail the thread.

It's ok, i don't wish to dig too deeply into your private life.