House Attempts Again to Ban
Virtual Child Pornography
By an overwhelming 413–8 vote, the House of Representatives took another stab June 25 at banning computer-generated images of minors having sex.
The bill, the Child Obscenity and Pornography Prevention Act (H.R. 4623), attempts to address Constitutional issues that led the Supreme Court to strike down a previous law. The earlier legislation, the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act, bans any image that “appears to be” a minor; the new bill restricts only images that are “indistinguishable” from child porn, Reuters reported June 25. It also contains comprehensive prohibitions on offers to buy or sell child pornography and on showing pornography to children, and a prohibition of all child pornography involving prepubescent children.
In striking down the earlier law, the court found it unconstitutionally broad and so far-reaching that it had the potential to chill expression with clear artistic and literary merit. The American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Foundation filed an amicus curiae brief in that case.
Posted July 1, 2002.
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