December 18th / 20th, 2009
"Child Porn Download Case is Obscene"
There are currently over 1.3 million pornographic websites, most of which
are geared to adults who want to get their jollies watching videos or
looking at photos of other adults engaged in provocative acts. But according to
the US Customs Service, 100,000 of those websites also offer illegal child
pornography. In fact, according to the National Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children, more than 20,000 images of child porn are posted
online each week. And it's a booming business. According to Internet Filter
Review, child porn is a $3-billion-a-year industry here in America.
The real problem, though, isn't so much the kiddie porn itself, but rather
the adults who view it, then act upon it. Internet Filter review reports
that over 10% of Americans admit to having an addiction to internet sex.
Meanwhile a Focus on the Family poll found that 47% of all families said
pornography is a problem in their home. And, the American Academy of Matrimonial
Lawyers say that internet porn is a factor in 2 out of every 3 divorces.
Worst of all, the US Justice department tells us that one in every five
children receives unwanted sexual solicitations online, and that two in every
five abductions of under-aged children (ages 15-17) are due to internet
contact.
It's no wonder, then, that law enforcement both here and abroad is
cracking down on predators. Last week, for example, Europol arrested 115 alleged
child sex offenders in a massive, nineteen-country raid which specifically
targeted adults who prey on kids using the internet. Closer to home in
Guilford county, Sheriff BJ Barnes and his team have done a great job of
identifying and arresting these same kinds of scumbags. The problem is that
internet sex offenders aren't necessarily deterred by the threat of prison. Even
if we hung a sex offender in the town square once a week, it wouldn't, per
se, "cure" or dissuade other mental defectives. On the other hand, the
stiff sentencing laws we have in place
cast a broad net, and can sometimes unjustly catch and punish unintended
targets. That's what happened to Matthew White.
Two years ago, the 22-year-old Sacramento resident did an online search in
hopes of being able to download a "College Girls Gone Wild" video. The
site he landed on was Limewire.com, but instead of opening up images of
topless coeds, young Matthew found himself staring at naked children in sexual
poses. White immediately deleted the site, but that's when his troubles
began. A full year later, FBI agents came to White's home and accused him of
trafficking in child porn.
At first glance, the agents could find no evidence of Matthew's alleged
crime, but then they used special software to retrieve all of White's deleted
files from his hard drive. Bingo! The Limewire.com site appeared, and so
did the child porn which the young man had only momentarily viewed a year
earlier. Though the FBI admitted that Matthew would have been unable to
retrieve the porn which they found, and despite his explanation of his brief
and innocent encounter with illegal porn, the Bureau arrested him.
Prosecutors then told White that he faced a 20-year prison sentence unless
he pleaded guilty, in which case, he would only do 3-and-a-half years,
with ten years probation. Under the plea agreement, White would also be
registered as a sex offender once he leaves prison. White, still proclaiming his
innocence, took the deal. In the meantime the CBS TV affiliate in
Sacramento and Switched.com had launched their own investigation of the matter, and
found numerous complaints against Limewire.com for disguising illegal child
porn sites as something else, so they could lure law abiding adults into
purchasing something they didn't intend to order. Confronted with this
information, the FBI stated that any time someone accidentally views child porn,
they should immediately report it to authorities, or else face the same
fate as Matthew White.
There is so much wrong with this case, I scarcely know where to begin.
First of all, I want to know how the FBI knew that a 22-year-old man with no
criminal record and no history of sex offenses, accidentally clicked onto a
child porn site for less than 30 seconds. Next I want to know why they
waited a full year after the incident to invade White's home. I also have a
problem with the FBI's so-called policy of immediately reporting an accidental
child porn viewing. Given that they didn't believe Matthew White's story,
why would anyone voluntarily turn himself into police, and risk false
imprisonment. It goes without saying that the sentence and plea agreement in
White's case were grossly unfair. Beyond that, the FBI has no business
snooping on American citizens unless their target has a history of offenses or
complaints against him.
Congress should launch an immediate investigation of the Matthew White
case, and get answers to some of the concerns stated above. Inherent in that
investigation should be a probe into Limewire.com, and a debate about right
to privacy. I realize that the child porn industry is fueling the
addictions and crimes of sex offenders, but we cannot deny anyone's right to view
sexual material in the privacy of their own home, so long as the viewer
doesn't then make advances toward children, either via the internet or in
person.
No doubt kiddie porn is a bad thing, and we must prosecute sex offenders
to the fullest limit of the law. But arresting someone for accidentally
downloading child pornography is, in itself, an obscene act. Speaking of
which, I am reminded of the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who, when
asked to describe obscenity, responded, "I know it when I see it". The
problem is that now, the government can put you in jail for not knowing it when
you see it.
In other words, the Feds are doing to us the very thing we're not supposed
to watch. Ironic, isn't it?
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