Lolitas and Cyber Angels

[Will French]

Mike Duvos wrote:

> Someone who has an encrypted file on their hard drive from
> some motheaten child porn magazine published 20 years ago is
> no more guilty of the exploitation of the models portrayed
> than someone who downloads the Simpson crime scene photos from
> alt.binaries.pictures.tasteless is guilty of killing Nicole
> and Ron.

  I disagree.  If (quite hypothetically) I were one of the
"models" in such a magazine (I'm 27 now, so I would have been 7
at the time it was published), I would certainly consider anyone
posessing a copy, today or 20 years ago, to be exploiting me.

  However, that doesn't mean I would want them criminalized for
it.  In fact, my "anyone possessing a copy" above includes the
Government (and third parties such as the Guardian Angels) in
the course of a kiddie-porn investigation/prosecution.  It's a
very hard question.

  And yes, people who download Simpson crime scene photos are
exploiting (not killing) Nicole and Ron.  When I have been shown
these photos, I have quickly averted my eyes. This is simple
human decency, not to mention respect for the dead.


Will French  <wfrench at interport.net>