Child porn laws going several steps too far

[SineSwiper]

Respected school principal brought on child porn charges for investigating non-nude picture

The witch hunts begin. This stupid "Sexting" hysteria is turning into a media circus that is claiming victims left and right.

Child pornography is the only law I know of that is so easy to frame people for. Somebody could email you some child porn picture, and suddenly you're breaking the law. You didn't actually do anything, and you don't even know the person who sent it.

Photos that used to be considered cute bathtub baby pictures are now considered child pornography. How fucked up is that? Do we suddenly live in Saudi Arabia? Who the fuck is going to change the law?

Possession of child pornography should not be a crime. Instead victimizing children to produce it should be the real crime. The people who actually get off on this stuff are sick, but they should be treated for their problem before it turns into something worse like child rape. And the people producing the situations and photographing it should be the ones locked up.

[Tessian]

I don't think you'll get any argument from anyone here... sex offender stuff has gone WAY too far because it's one of those things politicians push through to get votes cause everyone wants to save the children!

Seriously, it went REALLY off the deep end when they started bringing 18 year olds up on these charges because 17 year old classmates sent them nude pics. And as to your mention of framing-- I actually know a friend who's now husband had this happen. Got infected with a trojan, trojan downloaded child porn, "somehow" the FBI found out and that was that.

The sex offender registry is the worst part of it... basically you're blacklisting people for life, even though they already served the time for their crime. I don't give a shit if you think they'll repeat offend-- in that case keep them locked up longer, but once someone's served their time THAT'S IT. It's absolutely ridiculous that we can convict someone of a crime, incarcerate them, then keep them on a black list, ruining their chances of reintegrating into society, because they MIGHT do it again.

[Eric]

It is a witch hunt, we'll just have to hope that common sense will translate into rectifying the flaws with the law currently.

The good news is the judges aren't being as retarded as the prosecutors.

You'd never see Edgeworth doing such silliness.

[Mental]

I don't think you'll get any argument from anyone here... sex offender stuff has gone WAY too far because it's one of those things politicians push through to get votes cause everyone wants to save the children!

Seriously, it went REALLY off the deep end when they started bringing 18 year olds up on these charges because 17 year old classmates sent them nude pics. And as to your mention of framing-- I actually know a friend who's now husband had this happen. Got infected with a trojan, trojan downloaded child porn, "somehow" the FBI found out and that was that.

The sex offender registry is the worst part of it... basically you're blacklisting people for life, even though they already served the time for their crime. I don't give a shit if you think they'll repeat offend-- in that case keep them locked up longer, but once someone's served their time THAT'S IT. It's absolutely ridiculous that we can convict someone of a crime, incarcerate them, then keep them on a black list, ruining their chances of reintegrating into society, because they MIGHT do it again.

You want someone to blame, go after James Dobson (head of Focus on the Family). He and his band of a few million Puritans or so have decided that anything more than missionary position sex between consenting married couples is sinful and worthy of wrecking people's lives with. The politicians out there are courting his followers, more or less. He is, after Osama and Fred Phelps, probably the single most intolerant prick on the planet. And fundamentalist Christians - to be distinguished from nice, tolerant, moderate fun-to-hang-out-with Christians like Lox - are probably the most intolerant people on Earth. Sex scares many of them wholly and deeply, I believe.

[Mental]

And yes, the sex offender registry is used way more often to ruin someone's life forever for early mistakes than it is to protect anyone in particular. If the local news is having a slow day, they'll go through the registry to find out if anyone is living nearby and run an "expose" just to start the witchhunt all over again.

I blame people like Nancy Grace who just can't rest until they've viciously, mockingly, and fame-whoringly destroyed everyone who even looks like the people she used to prosecute. Chris Hansen, too. Both of them have gotten very famous and rich on the prosecution and near-entrapment of "offenders". I think justice and the process of dealing with crimes, incarceration, and penitence are crucial to the functioning of any sane society and ought to be far too important to be allowed to be used to whore ego, power, money, and fame.

I do believe a lot of this is some sort of fundamentalist backlash that started back in 2000, and is starting to subside with the last election.

[SineSwiper]

I blame people like Nancy Grace who just can't rest until they've viciously, mockingly, and fame-whoringly destroyed everyone who even looks like the people she used to prosecute. Chris Hansen, too. Both of them have gotten very famous and rich on the prosecution and near-entrapment of "offenders". I think justice and the process of dealing with crimes, incarceration, and penitence are crucial to the functioning of any sane society and ought to be far too important to be allowed to be used to whore ego, power, money, and fame.

Here's my opinion on Nancy Grace.

I do believe a lot of this is some sort of fundamentalist backlash that started back in 2000, and is starting to subside with the last election.

Ha! The same black Baptists who voted for Obama also voted for Prop 8. Guess what groups pushed for that bullshit...

Fucking extremists! I hate them all.

[Tessian]

Good god... just look at how Nancy Grace reacted during the whole Duke Lacrosse rape case to see her true colors. Totally condemned the guys beforehand, ran their names through the mud so many times so as to utterly destroy them... then when it was found the damned woman was lying she said nothing (or was it a 10 second apology? I forget).

I don't really think, in this instance, fundies are to blame... I still hold that the issue of child porn is one of those golden issues that politicians love to jump on to get re-elected because everybody wants to "think of the children!" and if you say no to a bill against child pornography then you're a terrible human being.

[RentCavalier]

On the subject of extremists, I went to a Mormon Church service this morning in order to see their living prophet speak.

I found that he is neither a prophet and that their definition of "living" is pretty liberal.

[Julius Seeker]

You'd never see Edgeworth doing such silliness.

Unless someone's murdered, who cares?



Anyway, on topic. The laws are supposed to protect from exploitation of minors, not against the liberalization of sexual activity. So yeah, this is ridiculous.