SoCal parents fight use of kids' images on adult Internet sites

1 Comment | Oakland Tribune, Mar 12, 2008 | by Jim Sanders

He has proposed Assembly Bill 2104 to outlaw the posting of a minor's photo, without consent, on a Web site containing obscene matter. Violators could be jailed for one year and fined $5,000.

Calvin Massey, a professor of constitutional law at UC Hastings College of the Law, has not read AB 2104 but said its approach might well survive legal challenge, because it does not restrict access or photography at school events.

Government cannot simply bar speech it finds offensive, Massey said, but "I think the depiction of minors in a context in which it's pandering to those who are interested in child pornography is an adequate justification."

Even if signed into law, however, enforcement could be difficult.

Adult Internet sites can be based anywhere in the world, photographers often aren't known, and images might have been stolen or exchanged hands repeatedly before posting.

"The intent, I think, is worthwhile," Los Angeles Sheriff's Sgt. Wayne Bilowit said of AB 2104.

"But I don't know how it plays out in the real world," he said.