Punishment for child porn?

Question

What do you think the punishment should be for a young girl who has no prior criminal record who is charged with 1 count of possession of child pornography for a file found in her computer. Her defense is she accidently downloaded it while searching for regular porn on Limewire. My state says the punishment is 3-15 years in prison...that seems harsh. What does everyone else think?

Correction. It was a short video of a ten year old boy giving another oral pleasure. Disturbing. Also when I say young girl I mean she is 20 with a boyfriend healthy and by all accounts normal girl. She herself had been molested as a child and raped....so it seems odd she would download this willingly?

Answer 1

In a perfect world,that wouldn't even be a crime. But, in puritanical America in this age of anti sex paranoia, the best we can hope for is that this woman should get 12 months probation and no felony record or Megan's law registration.

Beyond that, nobody should get jail time for looking at pictures - yes, it should be a crime to MAKE porno with children and it should be a crime to actually have sex with prepubescent kids, but just looking at pictures should be OK. After all, wouldn't the kids be better off if the molesters looked at pictures rather than attacking children?

Answer 2

I have a different slant on this. First, where are the girls parents and why aren't they monitoring her computer time. A "young girl" has no business messing around with pornography online or anywhere else. Second, she has learned a valuable lesson - don't mess around in those undergound sites until she is older and knows what she is doing.

Third, possession of child porn, whether 1 picture or 100 pictures is punishable by prison time. She should be arrested and tried for it. I doubt she would get the 3-15 years but I'll bet she wouldn't be messing around in porn sites anymore. Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law......

Answer 3

If she had only 1 image and no more, it probably was an accident that she downloaded it. However, I don't know how someone could "accidentally" get on a child porn website in the first place. Based on the info you've given, and barring any past history of child porn or molestaion, I'd say she deserves a maximum of 6 months in jail with 1 year probation and possibly some counseling. But if she reoffends, they should throw the book at her and HARD.

Answer 4

Funny you bring this up. Last week, in Michigan, it has been widely reported that a "revealing" cell phone picture of a 14 year old girl was making the rounds on the cell phones at school. She took the picture, and sent it, herself. So, under the "black & white" rule of law we keep asking for, this girl should be put to death. Along with any of the other teenagers that passed the picture around. Sweet. If we make everything a death penalty case when it concerns our children, the ONLY result will be more children will be not just used & abused, but KILLED. After all, if the punishment for taking a picture, is the same as for killing the kid, guess what will happen? Dead kids can't identify you in a line up. When exactly did common sense make its exist from America? When?

Answer 5

Someone could have put that on her computer. I mean from another IP#. Honestly, that happens. Sometimes, files are just stored on someone elses computer without the knowledge of the the user of the pc that the file is stored on.

And if she has actually been charged, then she should go to her court date and demand that the proper investigation take place before she should be held accountable. Computers remember everything. And to charge someone, then they need to be willing to take it that far. But then, why didn't she delete it?

Answer 6

Were do I start?

I subscribed to a group on one p2p program like Limewire and the next thing I knew unknown files were being downloaded to my computer.

A child in possession of child pornography should be considered a victim.

Answer 7

It is very harsh. Every culture must have a booger man to persecute. For the Puritans it was witches, for Hitler it was the Jews, 20 years ago it was drugs, today it is sex offenses. Don't get me wrong, rapist, molesters, etc should go to jail for a long time but American cops and courts need a lot more than the current supply so they invent sex crimes (like yours) so they can keep their positions of power and keep the prisons full. You probably won't get prison time but you will have to register as a sex offender and be spat upon for the rest of your life if convicted of a sex offense. I spent 7 months in jail when my 8 year old step daughter accused me of raping her over 5000 times. Every doctor who examined her said there was no rape and she was still a virgin but it cost me my house, my business and all my savings to hire a lawyer and fight through the courts. I won but had to start all over at age 42, my wife killed herself in jail, (they charged her as an accessory to rape) and my step daughter spent the next 10 years locked up in a juvenile center. I pray to God you do better. Hire the best lawyer you can afford.

Answer 8

That is very harsh, alittle too harsh!

We see the true corruption in the government today.

Why should a man who kills another man, with countless records of crimes in the past, be charged with less time then someone that has no history of crimes, and one accidental download?

Corruption, corruption, corruption!

Answer 9

I think that her story is very possible. I have had some CRAZY stuff from those types of sites...that is the #1 reason I don't use them anymore.

You can download something and once it is there find out it is something COMPLETELY different.

Not to mention those sites are illegal...I think.

Answer 10

The young girl must be given a chance to rehabilitate.