WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Congress cracked down on child pornographers in a new law that took effect Tuesday, making it illegal to appear to depict children in sexual situations, whether in films, computer images or photographs. But the American Civil Liberties Union decried the law as unconstitutional and a waste of prosecutors' resources, since it expanded a law designed to protect any actual children used to produce pornography. The ACLU said it also was so broad that adults portraying children in films could risk prosecution. Previously, depictions of minors produced by computers without using children had been outside the scope of federal law. The new law expands the definition of child pornography to include any image -- photograph, video or computer-generated image -- that depicts or appears to depict a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said it was designed to protect children from sexual exploitation and pedophiles. ``This is a tough bill aimed a child pornographers,'' he said. ``While federal law has failed to keep pace with technology, the purveyors of child pornography have been right on line with it. Passage of this bill will help to correct that problem,'' Hatch said. But ACLU legislative counsel Daniel Katz said it had major ramifications for artists, the film industry and journalism. He said it included a waiver-of-privacy rule to permit newsroom searches for information related to investigations of child pornography. ``It is much broader, and the ramifications are extraordinary, both for artists and for people in the cinema,'' Katz said. Under this expanded definition of child pornography, it would be illegal to produce or show a film that included an adult actor or actress portraying a minor in a sexually explicit scene, he said. Computers can be used to alter photographs, films and videos to produce sexually explicit materials virtually indistinguishable from unretouched photographs. The new technology has hampered prosecutors in their ability to obtain convictions because it can be impossible to identify individuals or to prove that the materials were produced using real children. The new law would allow prosecution of pornographers whether or not the identity of the child could be determined, so long as the person, even if an adult, appeared to be a minor. Currently, pornography is protected under free speech laws except when a minor child is involved. Hatch said the Judiciary Committee determined that computer-generated pornography posed many of the same dangers to children as did pornography made from unretouched photographs in that it could be used to seduce children into sexual activity or to encourage a pedophile to prey on them. The new law sets mandatory prison sentences of 15 years for production of child pornography, five years for possession of the materials and life in prison for repeat offenders convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. The child pornography law was included in part of a broad spending bill President Clinton signed into law Monday. It had passed the Senate Monday just hours before the midnight deadline for the start of the new financial year. It does not address new or expanded regulation of the Internet. The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a landmark ruling by a Philadelphia appeals court that blocked as unconstitutional a new federal law barring indecency on the Internet.

_______________________ Regards, You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. -Mark Twain Joseph Reagle http://rpcp.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle@mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E