Child pornography is defined as “any image depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct”, with a minor being anyone under the age of 18. The definition of “sexual conduct” is also very broad, with many acts falling under the term’s umbrella. It illegal to possess, promote, distribute, manufacture, or transmit these materials in the USA and most other countries.
The distribution of child pornography has increased exponentially with the advent of the Internet. The governments and law enforcement on state, federal and international levels are active in their attempt to stop the creation and/or distribution of illicit content on the web by enacting tough laws to imprison and label persons convicted of its creation, distribution or possession.
Charges of dissemination of child pornography require that the person has the intent to distribute the images to others. These charges are often brought against individuals using file sharing programs.
Peer-to-peer (or P2P) file-sharing software allows computer users to remotely share files, including images and videos, with other users across the world who have the same software installed. The complex settings in P2P software make it difficult for a user to know whether he or she has turned off sharing of images, videos or other files.
These programs are enticing and free to download from any number of internet sites, and they essentially network any computers on the internet that use the same or similar programs. When these programs are installed on a computer, by default they may allow others to view and access data contained in a file designated for sharing on your computer. Without knowing how the program defaults work, a person may easily disseminate contraband images without the requisite intent to do so.
Law enforcement officers investigating child pornography monitor peer to peer file sharing networks and look for illegal files available for downloading and seek out those who may be downloading them. A large number of movies and pictures of minors involved in sex acts have been documented and victims identified which aides law enforcement in their investigation, especially when it comes to peer-to-peer networks.
State and federal criminal laws differentiate between possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. In the federal criminal justice system, a conviction for the receipt of child pornography carries a mandatory five-year minimum sentence. Both possession and distribution of child pornography average an eight-year-prison sentence but often are 15 years or longer.
There are many ways a person can acquire images on a computer that do not mean that the user had the requisite intent or knowledge to possess the image. Computers may have many users; that means determining which user may have accessed, downloaded or disseminated child pornography may be a significant defense issue. Even a one-time user of a computer may contaminate its hard drive or cache memory with illegal material: this is particularly true for computer systems that share a network at home or work.
Additionally, files may be downloaded blindly without knowing specifically about their content. For example, images may be downloaded by clicking on a link without first viewing the content of the image being downloaded. Images can also be downloaded in bulk where each image is not reviewed before the download; two simple examples may be multiple images compiled in a Zip or RAR file, or highlighting a series of links for download from file sharing programs such as Limewire, MP3 Rocket or Kazaa.
Anytime an image is viewed on a computer, that image is "cached" by the web browser. That means it may exist on the computer without the person ever making an attempt to download the image. Though the person may have been aware of what they were viewing, they may have been unaware that they were automatically downloading the image, and therefore didn't "knowingly possess" it.
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