TN child porn laws under scrutiny
Tennessee’s child porn law may be so broad as to be unconstitutional:
Throw a bunch of trashy photographs of pigtailed “girls” engaged in vile acts in front of a jury.
Argue John Q. Citizen purposely downloaded those images because he wanted to view child pornography and liked what he saw.
Don’t bother trying to find the “girls” or their birth certificates. They don’t look 18.
Under Tennessee’s child pornography law, John Q. Citizen might well be headed to prison – even if those “girls” turn out to be adult actresses.
“Why can that not happen?” Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Jerry L. Smith wanted to know.
Additionally:
The chief bone of contention is a section in that law that allows a jury to “infer” or conclude that a person shown in pornographic material is a minor based on how the material is packaged, labeled or portrayed.
I think this is kind of silly. If the images are of consenting adults, there is no crime as far as I’m concerned regardless of marketing. Child porn is a horrendous crime, as long as it’s really child porn.
That being said, I’m also pretty sure Tennessee’s age of consent for sex is less than 18. That would seem to be a larger concern than young looking adults who have pigtails consenting to dirty pictures, since Tennessee also has a high occurrence of teen pregnancy.
