Monday, September 20, 2010

Hard Mode 8: When "CP" Doesn't Mean "cellphone"

"The State has no right to control the private thoughts of individuals on the grounds that their bad thoughts could pose a future risk of harm to others. On the same vein, the State should have no right to criminalise the simple possession of 'bad pornography' for private use with no intention to distribute or to gain from it. The reasoning that the Internet is hard to regulate [...] does not justify the proposed new offence."

Excerpt from the article "'Caveat Viewer!': The rationale of the possession offence" by Abhilash Nair, from the International Review of Law, Computers & Technology.

From the excerpt, or by some freak chance, maybe, just maybe, even from the picture, one can deduce that "CP" also means child pornography. If you've figured it out just from the picture alone (the kid is obviously just roleplaying Goldilocks with the cute teddies), well, should the State punish you for your naughty thoughts?

Following the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the EU Convention on Cybercrime, the UK Parliament is currently considering new legislation that would criminalize the simple possession of CP.

The idea iss (apologies to Prof. Gutierrez) that children will be protected from the two kinds of harm caused by CP:
  1. Direct - When kids are the participants in CP, who, in most cases, cannot give informed consent.
  2. Indirect - When people, young or old, view CP, which leads to desensitization and degradation of morals.
But the author argues that punishing the end-user of CP will fail to meet these objectives and thus will be struck down as either being overbroad or failing to meet strict scrutiny.

First of all, yes, it's possible that your computer can be planted with small amounts of CP by a virus, a trojan, or a sicko friend. Secondly, with respect to the direct harm, isn't it better to go after the makers of CP rather than the downloader? And lastly, with respect to indirect harm, it's hard to prove a scientific connection between viewing CP and getting desensitized to it. Ever since Hollywood movies became gorier since the 70s, we should all be killing each other by now.

So, with all said, should we follow in the footsteps of the UK, US, and other countries with anti-CP possession statutes?

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