Should possession of a digital photograph of boy or girl, 17 years of age or younger in a sexual pose or act, warrant 5 years in prison for each photograph? Should it warrant any punishment? More?

- What about virtual child porn? Cartoons or digitally altered. Should it matter?
- Does this enter into the area of freedom of speech and/or association?

I think each should be based on the age of consent which unfortunately varies from state to state. This is what determines statuatory rape, so I feel it should also determine the age of consent for posing nude.

Children who are obviously underage for any state i.e. ~10 y/o or younger....well to me there's no way to tell me THOSE children are not being exploited and the perpetrators need to be prosecuted the fullest length the law will allow.

Just to clarify...we are not talking about the person who took the photographs of the underage child, few would argue that person is undeserving of punishment. The point of contention is the person who downloads the photo off the internet from an anonomous source (like Kazaa) without exchanging any currency. They are arguably not perpetuating this severe form of child abuse, for whether or not they download it does not effect future child molesters from taking more pictures, or not. In the same way a person downloading pictures of wrecked automobiles or murdered people does not perpetuate those occurences.

Should the person who simply looks at the photos be held legally responsible for doing so, as is the current practice, and face several years in prison, as is the current trend?

Is this just? Who is victimized?

As long as someone is looking at the pics then those looking are encouraging the practice whether money is exchanged or not.

So to the point yes, if a person has child porn they need to be prosecuted IMHO.

The desire to view child pornography creates a demand for the product.

But just like my views on drug usage. Users should not face the same penalties as the supplier. I my opinion the producer and supplier are the ones who should face the harshest penalties.

Sleeper

Child pornography is disgracefull and immoral. The peopl ewho watch it, however should not be punished, those who make it should be repremanded.

CP

Children cannot make the same informed choices adults make concerning their bodies. People viewing child porn support child porn.

Children are the victims in this. Therefore all parties should be prosecuted.

On the issue of the cartoon images.....well as long as the individual can contain his fetish to imaginary drawings then OK.