Viewing Child Porn now Legal in New York

[The Great Purtabo]

"This makes sense for the few times when innocent people might accidentally stumble upon kiddie porn while browsing for other stuff"

This is the purpose of the ruling, and as rulings go, this makes sense. You cannot have overarching laws like those in place, where someone can legally be put in prison for a crime without intent. The laws before were simply too vague before. This cleans things up.

 

[Richardplex]

AFAIK drawn/CG child porn isn't actually illegal in the US. Also did you edit in the quote from me? I didn't get a notification. >.>

That is a misconception. It actually is illegal in the US.

This would appear to be correct. 18 USC sec 1466A [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1466A] (enacted 2003 under Shrub in the PROTECT Act) does indeed appear to make, for example, lolicon hentai illegal to produce, possess, distribute, or receive. According to wiki, it's been tested in court and has resulted in convictions.

In which case gelbooru better not be hosted in the US. (heck, even safebooru might have problems)

[small]And also the scanlation group SaHa better hope that a judge can see the literary value of Kodomo no Jikan. >.>[/small]

It's a weird law isn't it? As pointed out,

When I think of child pornography, I think of films/pictures where a child was actually abused to create them, not hand-drawn art or stories or adult actors playing a role. Yes, you've seen people fake being murdered in action films, but it's unlikely you've watched actual snuff films.

It's reasonable to assume that seeing a film of an actor being killed does not imply endorsement of murder, but try and argue this applies to lolicon, where there are no victims, and watch the outcry of even thinking such a thing. People and their inconsistent logics when sex and/or children are involved...

OT: I think this isn't that bad. I mean, no matter how good your lawyer is, if you are frequently watching child pornography, even without possessing it, a judge will just '***** Please' you. It's a law that seems to be protect innocent people while not compromising against guilty parties.

 

[w00tage]

they could not have worded that anymore wrong than they possibly did.

"how about, the viewing of child porn on the web in itself is not necessarily a crime unless sought after or saved, how ever it is the viewers responsibility to report this to the authorities, failure to do so can be considered a criminal offense, you sick bastard."

^^ this too.

 

[Veret]

This is a complex issue, and I'd have to think over my own opinions for a looonnng time before I'd feel comfortable putting them in writing. But I did see a fascinating take from someone else that I think everyone should read:

I have seen quite a bit of porn, OP. I have seen the images that lurk in the hearts of men and women. I have talked with strangers about things they have never even told their wives or boyfriends. And yet the most heartbreaking thing time after time is to see the dissonance that exists between the person they really are and who they have to pretend to be. Pedophiles; they are many more than you know and a good majority would never lift a finger to hurt a child. Some even choosing to undertake extreme measures to prevent doing so. Zoophiles; some of whom have experienced deeper and more meaningful relationships with animals than the rest of us may ever experience in our lifetime, yet they may never be happy in society the way that most of us can easily be. Self-mutilators; some of whom can't reach any form of sexual gratification without placing their lives or health in extreme danger. Is it fair that some of us get to masturbate to pictures of boobs and roll over to sleep, while others stay up all night, ostracized by implications and improbability of their sexuality?

The world can be a large and uncaring place. If a small community board somewhere on the internet allows people to come together and share with others like them in an open and judgement free environment, then I say let them. They have it hard enough as it is.

Original discussion [http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/hhg5n/dae_find_rjailbait_to_be_creepy_as_fuck_its_a/c1vg636?context=1].

 

[shintakie10]

Now if only they could get around to not makin it illegal to read lolicon or anythin vaguely sexual involvin anyone who even looks underage in works of fiction we might make some progress on this front.

Whatever though. Baby steps and all that.

 

[Risingblade]

That actually makes sense. Of course this should only be applied to private areas you don't pedophiles watching child porn out in public.

 

[evilneko]

Dafuq did I just read?

OT: I hope this is a joke and if it isn't, I just hope it doesn't spread to other states otherwise the whole world will not be safe for anyone... not even your children...

What this does is protect those who, for example, forget to add "-loli" to their search on gelbooru. (and even adding that might not prevent a character that is or appears underage from showing up, seeing as tags are added by the community)

Should checking out Li Meifon [http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=410167] really be a crime? (not that a pedophile would be interested in her anyway, they'd have to be also an ephebophile and into ridiculous boobs...) The way the law's worded, it is. In-universe Meifon's underage, after all.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

However, he was in possession of the computer at the time, and even though he turned it over to police he was also charged with possessing child pornography.

Thank god they put a stop to that guy. Who knows whose computer he might've tried to fix next. Maybe YOUR computer.

Think about it! Scary.

 

[Arakasi]

I have to admit I don't understand this whole situation.
We live in a society that is meant to be understanding of psychological problems, and yet people treat pedophiles, as if they were a Christian extremist talking to a homosexual.
Doesn't there need to be some kind of solution that doesn't harm anyone (e.g. cartoons) to ensure that no one actually does hurt anyone due to their perversion?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend child porn, or anything that causes children harm like that, just that people should stop treating pedophiles like they're the devil, and that they should be helped, not shunned.
Face it, it isn't their fault that they are the way they are.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I know, good thing I use maxmyspeed.com!

I mean, just got a brand new computer and evidently I have 600 new viruses, thankfully they will get rid of them for only $200!

That's an amazing deal. And they'll max my speed too? Where can I send my credit card information?!

 

[MammothBlade]

A victory for reason, I think. There have been quite a few cases of people innocently stumbling upon child porn and going to jail for it. That, and I don't think it's reasonable or right to prosecute people for viewing something, no matter how obscene its content. Should someone go to prison for visiting a physical gallery of child pornography? Should people with a photographic memory be jailed everytime they visualise an obscene picture? The answer to me is no, it can't be a crime to perceive. The line stops at possession of an illicit image saved to a storage device where it can be accessed again later. It may create loopholes for paedophiles who know how to access their cache images, but the alternative is much worse.

 

[Veret]

until you realize that children really dont know what consent really means, or the long term effects of being molested or raped as a child can do to a person.

I don't think I've ever seen somebody arguing with that. The issue here is that, in some places, it's also illegal to view the "harmless" stuff that you described. True, it's skeezy, and it may or may not promote a subculture of child molestation (which we can all agree is not okay). On the other hand, abolishing child porn won't make pedophiles stop existing; it will just mean they have to go out an molest actual children to get their rocks off. If regular porn were outlawed, do you think rapes would go up?

I honestly don't know. Like I said, I don't have answers, just uncomfortable questions.

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

so i can save cheese pizza and captain picards pics now? Bad puns aside... well this should change things in law and order svu.

Interesting thing to note: It's not illegal to view child porn, but it IS illegal to possess it. Know what counts as possessing it? Posting it online for other people to view.

It wouldn't matter if are viewing x material or not your computer is like a tape recorder saving everything you view as cookies or other files. So even if you don't click right, save as there is still a file for it on your computer.

 

[Something Amyss]

I wonder if they understand how computers work.

 

[templar1138a]

so i can save cheese pizza and captain picards pics now? Bad puns aside... well this should change things in law and order svu.

Interesting thing to note: It's not illegal to view child porn, but it IS illegal to possess it. Know what counts as possessing it? Posting it online for other people to view.

It wouldn't matter if are viewing x material or not your computer is like a tape recorder saving everything you view as cookies or other files. So even if you don't click right, save as there is still a file for it on your computer.

You forget about clearing browser history and "Porn mode."

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

so i can save cheese pizza and captain picards pics now? Bad puns aside... well this should change things in law and order svu.

Interesting thing to note: It's not illegal to view child porn, but it IS illegal to possess it. Know what counts as possessing it? Posting it online for other people to view.

It wouldn't matter if are viewing x material or not your computer is like a tape recorder saving everything you view as cookies or other files. So even if you don't click right, save as there is still a file for it on your computer.

You forget about clearing browser history and "Porn mode."

as a computer tech I can still dig up those files unless you have a hard-scrubber software to clear your cache, cookies or other information dumps that people don't look into.