Internet Related Child Exploitation Laws and Legislation
The information on this page is reprinted from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children web site

The Child Protection Act of 1984 defines a child as anyone younger than the age of 18. Therefore a sexually explicit photograph of a 15-, 16-, or 17-year-old girl or boy is technically child pornography. The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 amends the definition of child pornography to include that which actually depicts the sexual conduct of real minor children and that which appears to be a depiction of a minor engaging in sexual conduct. Computer, photographic, and photocopy technology is amazingly competent at creating and altering images that have been "morphed" to look like children even though those photographed may have actually been adults. People who alter pornographic images to look like children can now be prosecuted under this law.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court declared the federal Communications Decency Act of 1994 unconstitutional, the Act would have criminalized the "display" of "patently offensive" speech "in the manner available to a person [younger than] 18-years-of age." The effect of the Communications Decency Act would be to prohibit, on the Internet, a range of material that is appropriate for adults but not for children.

The federal Children's Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act, also known as "The Polly Klaas Bill," ensures that personal information about a child can no longer be bought or sold without a parent's consent. List brokers must release all information that they have to parents if they request it and they must release names of all those to whom the broker has distributed the list.

The overwhelming majority of states have established laws pertaining to child pornography. Unfortunately, there are seven remaining states that have not yet enacted laws prohibiting the possession of child pornography. This, of course, stands in the way of those states developing legislation dealing with Internet related child pornography.