actual children might be induced to engage.
The U.S. Congress outlawed virtual child pornog-
raphy in the Child Pornography Prevention Act of
1996 (CPPA). This act prohibits involving a minor in
any visual depiction of explicit sexual conduct, in-
cluding photographs, films, video pictures, and
computer-generated images. In passing the law, the
legislators maintained that the CPPA would discour-
age the circulation of child pornography. Some pro-
ponents of the act claimed that pedophiles employ
such materials in their attempts to seduce children,
although opponents of the act insisted that the evi-
dence to support such a claim was inconclusive. The
sponsors of the CPPA also argued that child pornog-
raphy represents an unacceptable invasion of pri-
vacy and that children could be harmed by seeing
images of themselves seemingly engaged, even if not
actually so, in sexual acts. In addition, the legislators
asserted that, virtual or otherwise, child pornogra-
phy contributes to the moral degeneracy of the soci-
ety. They further pointed out that access to the Inter-
net is widespread among underage persons, who
should be shielded from child pornography.
Opponents of the CPPA stressed that no child
need be personally involved in the obscene behavior
generated by virtual pornography morphing. They
took the view that the freedom to purvey sexual in-
formation in the form of Internet imagery is a fun-
damental right possessed by all U.S. citizens; some
asserted that this right is valuable in that it contrib-
utes to a healthier understanding of the wide variety
of human sexual expression and encourages the
elimination of unreasonable taboos.
Constitutional Issues In December of 1997, David
Hilton was indicted in a federal court in Maine for
possession of computer disks containing depictions
of child pornography. The defendant challenged
the constitutionality of the CPPA statute on the
grounds that it was vague and overly broad. Spe-
cifically, he argued that the phrase in the law that
criminalized possession of materials in which the
persons engaging in sexually explicit acts are or “ap-
pear to be” minors involved what inevitably could be
an imprecise attempt to ascertain the actual ages of
the depicted individuals. InUnited States v. Hilton,
however, the majority of the judges of the appellate
court thought otherwise. They noted that there are
extremes of pornography, with examples involving
adults, which are permissible, on one end and child
pornography, which is illegal, on the other. They
found virtual child pornography to be much closer
to the illegal end of the continuum than to the allow-
able end, and they also ruled that the statute satis-
fied constitutional requirements. The appellate
court’s opinion was allowed to stand when the U.S.
Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Cir-
cuit echoed the views expressed in theHiltoncase in
United States v. Achesonin 1999, but also in 1999, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled, in
Free Speech Coalition v. Reno, that the CPPA was uncon-
stitutionally vague because of its use of phrases such
as “appears to be” and “conveys the impression.” It
would be left to the U.S. Supreme Court in the next
decade to resolve the differences between theHilton
andAchesonopinions and the opinion in theFree
Speech Coalitioncase.
Impact The development of computer techniques
for creating child pornography generated intense
debates among the public and lawmakers in the
United States regarding fundamental moral issues
of harm, privacy, sexuality, and freedom of speech.
With ongoing advancements in computer graphic
capabilities, these debates continued into the
twenty-first century.
Further Reading
Arnaldo, Carlos A., ed.Child Abuse on the Internet:
Ending the Silence.New York: UNESCO Publishing/
Berghahn, 2001. Collection of essays pays particu-
lar attention to experiences with child pornogra-
phy in different countries.
Ferraro, Monique Mattei, and Eoghan Casey.Investi-
gating Child Exploitation and Pornography: The Inter-
net, the Law and Forensic Science.Boston: Elsevier/
Academic Press, 2005. Provides information on
the tactics that law-enforcement authorities use
in detecting and prosecuting cases of child por-
nography.
Jenkins, Philip.Beyond Tolerance: Child Pornography on
the Internet.New York: New York University Press,- Presents a readable discussion of the realm
of child pornography as well as recommenda-
tions on how best to deal with it.
O’Brien, Shirley.Child Pornography.2d ed. Dubuque,
Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1993. Argues that there is a
direct relationship between pornography and the
sexual molestation of children.
Gilbert Geis
166 Child pornography The Nineties in America