Source: Dawinder S. Sidhu & Kelsey Robinson Drug offenses lie at the heart of the movement for criminal justice reform, and for good reason. Drug policy is defined by severe and disproportionate penalties owing to a retributive, factually flawed, and hurried congressional process. These central characteristics apply to the child pornography context as well. Though drug sentencing is problematic enough, child pornography sentencing is arguably worse. The U.S. Sentencing Commission has disavowed the child pornography sentencing guidelines and invited judges to vary from them. Judges have done just that, varying…
Read MoreTag: Child Pornography (CP)
FL: North Lauderdale Man Who Transported Child Pornography Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
Source: justice.gov 4/19/24 MIAMI – On March 14, a North Lauderdale man, who is a registered sex offender, and who was convicted of transportation of over 620 electronic images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children, was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who sits in Miami. Jason Hemans, 40, arrived at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport from Jamaica on August 18, 2023. Due to Hemans being a registered sex offender, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers conducted an…
Read MoreMA: A father did everything he could to protect his son. Until he couldn’t.
Source: bostonglobe.com 2/22/24 BRAINTREE — Kevin Berner hung up the phone and — in a daze — headed toward the kitchen and his 12-year-old son. Hey buddy, can we talk? Minutes earlier, Berner had received a phone call from another father in the neighborhood who shared a disturbing story. He said his son had been in a carpool recently when another boy pulled up a cellphone photo of Berner’s son. The seventh-grader was naked in the photo “from head to toe.” Berner knew that his son — whose learning disabilities…
Read MoreOH: 2 police officers being investigated after telling a father his 11-year-old daughter could face child porn charges for sending images to a man online
Source: cnn.com 9/21/23 The police chief in Columbus, Ohio, is condemning an incident in which two officers told a father his 11-year-old daughter could face child porn charges for sending images to a man online. Chief Elaine Bryant said as soon as the department learned of the incident, captured on doorbell camera video, it “immediately reached out to the father to apologize, and to assure him that this matter was being fully investigated – both the actions of this officer, and more importantly, any crime committed against his child.” Bryant…
Read MoreAI-generated child sex images spawn new nightmare for the web
Source: washingtonpost.com 6/19/23 The revolution in artificial intelligence has sparked an explosion of disturbingly lifelike images showing child sexual exploitation, fueling concerns among child-safety investigators that they will undermine efforts to find victims and combat real-world abuse. Generative-AI tools have set off what one analyst called a “predatory arms race” on pedophile forums because they can create within seconds realistic images of children performing sex acts, commonly known as child pornography. Thousands of AI-generated child-sex images have been found on forums across the dark web, a layer of…
Read MoreFrance: Victims lose €3.5m in scam accusing them of viewing child abuse images
Source: theguardian.com 6/23/23 Eighteen arrests in France and one in Belgium over false emails threatening people with prosecution Police in France and Belgium say they have smashed a criminal ring that used fake court summonses accusing people of viewing child sexual abuse images to extort at least €3.5m (£3m). The phishing scam involved false emails from police, judges or institutions such as Europol threatening victims with prosecution unless they paid a “fine”. Police said they arrested 18 people in France and one in Belgium in an operation on Monday, with…
Read MoreINTERPOL and UNICEF sign cooperation agreement to address child sexual exploitation and abuse
Source: unicef.org 4/13/23 The two organizations to coordinate efforts to support governments in protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse, including in digital environments LYON, France/NEW YORK, 13 April 2023 – INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock and UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell have signed an agreement of cooperation that will support national governments around the world to prevent and address online child sexual exploitation and abuse and other child protection issues. Under the new agreement, the two organizations will cooperate in supporting national law enforcement agencies globally to improve their…
Read MoreMeta cracks down on teen “sextortion” on Facebook, Instagram
Source: arstechnica.com 11/21/22 Teens will finally have a way to proactively stop the spread of intimate images. Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) released data showing that it received overwhelmingly more reports of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) from Facebook than any other web service it tracked. Where other popular social platforms like Twitter and TikTok had tens of thousands of reports, Facebook had 22 million. Today, Facebook announced new efforts to limit the spread of some of that CSAM on its platforms. Partnering with…
Read MoreCA: A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal.
Source: sfgate.com 8/21/22 Mark noticed something amiss with his toddler. His son’s penis looked swollen and was hurting him. Mark, a stay-at-home dad in San Francisco, grabbed his Android smartphone and took photos to document the problem so he could track its progression. It was a Friday night in February 2021. His wife called their health care provider to schedule an emergency consultation for the next morning, by video because it was a Saturday and there was a pandemic going on. A nurse said to send photos so the doctor…
Read MoreEmily Horowitz: The hollowness of the child porn smear: Ketanji Brown Jackson has been bold and prescient
Source: nydailynews.com 3/24/22 Soon after her nomination, it was reported that as a law student in 1996, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a Harvard Law Review note analyzing the constitutionality of sex offense registries and that during her judicial career she did not always give the maximum sentence in child pornography cases. Unsurprisingly, she was immediately accused by Sen. Josh Hawley of “endangering our children” and not “protecting the most vulnerable.” These entirely meritless allegations show the extreme risks of speaking the truth about our disastrous and cruel sex offense…
Read MoreKS: These two child porn crimes don’t require sex offender registration. A Kansas bill would change that.
Source: cjonline.com 2/8/22 Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is pushing for lawmakers to require people convicted of certain child pornography crimes to register as sex offenders. “This is a matter of the law needing to catch up with technology,” Schmidt said in a statement. “Sadly, as the methods of distributing visual depictions of children being sexually abused have expanded, so too must the legal tools available to respond to that sort of illegal behavior that harms kids. This added tool is needed to help prevent more kids from becoming victims.” Senate…
Read MoreIL: Changes will deny probation for some child pornographers
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/XSLFNTYZMNGVTJSG2Z3IWHTL4A.bmp)
Source: wgem.com 12/29/21 QUINCY (WGEM) – There’s a change to a law that has to do with possession of child pornography. Legislators closed a loophole that allowed family members found to be in possession of child pornography to escape jail time. Starting on Jan. 1, possession of child pornography when the child is a household or family member is a non-probational offense. This means the offender will serve jail time if convicted. Previously, this category of offenders could receive a sentence of probation for their pornography conviction. Read the full…
Read MoreNew Zealand: Prison would be ‘utterly disastrous’ for man caught with child exploitation images, judge says
Source: stuff.co.nz 12/9/21 A man who dumped a laptop on which he downloaded thousands of child exploitation images has avoided jail after a judge said it would not surprise him if the defendant “did not survive a sentence of imprisonment”. Jasper James Gallacher ____, 30, was sentenced to six months’ community detention, along with two years of intensive supervision, in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday. Read the full article
Read MorePakistan: Supreme Court says Child pornography suspects do not deserve bail
Source: geo.tv 11/27/21 Rejecting the bail application of a suspect Saturday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan stated that people involved in spreading child pornography videos on social media do not deserve bail. “The trial court must announce the verdict in the case against the suspect soon,” ordered the Supreme Court. Read the full article
Read MoreCA: Santa Ana minister had child pornography that included children who were ‘weeks old,’ police say
Source: abc7.com 11/18/21 Luis ______ was ordained as a minister in 2018, but it’s unclear whether he’s actually involved in a church or place of worship. A 22-year-old Santa Ana minister has been charged with possessing thousands of images of child pornography, some of which included infants, according to police. Luis ______ was charged with five felonies, including three counts of sale or distribution of obscene matter with children engaging in sex. According to the Santa Ana Police Department, investigators were notified of Luis ______ when they received a…
Read MoreFL: Sheriff says tech companies not doing enough to stop child porn
Source: abcactionnews.com 11/4/21 A local sheriff is calling out big tech companies, saying they’re not doing enough to stop the spread of child pornography. In late September, Polk County Sheriff’s Office investigators made a major bust, identifying suspects in possession of child pornography that originated from countries all over the world. “They’re finding everything. They’re finding things that you can’t even conceive of or we can talk about publicly,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “Two years old, four years old, seven years old, eight years old. This last case…
Read MoreAL: Jackson County child pornographer sentenced to 320 years in prison
Source: waaytv.com 10/20/21 A Jackson County man has been sentenced to 320 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges involving child pornography. Stephen Frederick ____, 51, on Wednesday was sentenced to 3,840 months in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release. In August, Stephen Frederick ____pleaded guilty to 10 counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He’ll also have to register as a sex offender. “The sentence handed down today ensures that this man, who stole the innocence of a young…
Read MoreCanada: ‘Like I’m being raped all over again,’ child porn survivor tells court
Source: leaderpost.com 8/26/21 Three women shared with the court the long-term impacts child pornography has had on them and their children. “Lily” has never stopped being victimized by child pornography. As a child, she was sexually abused by her stepfather, the acts recorded and shared online. Although Lily is now an adult with children of her own, she continues to suffer from more than just the psychological impacts of her abuse. “Some of these perverts have contacted me,” she said. “I’ve received emails suggesting making porn with these strangers. One…
Read More