Legal Question in Technology Law in Illinois
Depictions of Child Pornography
In the past week, I was informed by
a coworker about a type of
pornography that is littering the
internet. In this pornography, blatantly underage hand drawn
cartoon children (often times that of
commonly watched children
cartoons) are depicted in sexual acts.
Can this be legal? If it is indeed illegal
like I suspect, why is this material so
readily available on the internet with
no censorship by search engines such
as google? It seems wrong!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Depictions of Child Pornography
It may seem wrong yet not be illegal. The First Amendment prohibits the government from making any law abridging freedom of speech -- the same amendment that prohibits abridging freedom of religion. Laws against child pornography are premised on the principle that there is actual child abuse going on in the making of it, and the injury is made worse by the dissemination of the images taken of the child abuse. But drawing cartoons involves no injury to the child. Even our very conservative Supreme Court struck down a law that tried to criminalize such depictions. Though we may disapprove of them, if children are not harmed, this nation favors freedom, because if the government gets to censor speech is dislikes, there would be no telling how far up the line they would go. Tolerating disgusting speech is a price we pay for our freedom to engage in progressive speech.
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