The innocent act of downloading porn for your personal use can easily find you on the wrong side of the law. An error in the searching of pornography, especially content with children in it, can get you convicted for the insidious crime of promoting child pornography. The Orange County Criminal Lawyer defends suspects accused of child pornography in Orange County. We use all our experience to gain you relief in your charges.

What Is Child Pornography?

Child pornography is the visual display of a minor in sexually related activity or conduct. This depiction could be in pictures, films, or videos, and computer-sourced content. Anyone who possesses content with minors present in the content may also be taken as having child pornography. The exposure of the minor’s genitals is also considered child pornography. There are two exemptions which are not considered child pornography:

  • The internet content may be incorrectly labeled, and an individual is misdirected to download materials depicting sexually related acts unknowingly. This person may be not be held liable in a child pornography case.

  • Illustrations of child sexually related content in images or videos to convey a significant scientific, political, educational, and literary message are not considered child pornography.

Classification of Child Pornography

Child pornography can be categorized into three:

  • Possessing

  • Distribution

  • Production

One can have in their storage devices such as phones or computer images that depict minors in sexual or sexually related activities. The depiction of the children in those images can be actual or simulated. The standard of guilt is established knowledge that the content you have is pornography. The possession of child pornography can be in the form of:

  • Pictures

  • Videos

  • Computer recreational games

  • Any other content and programs generated from the computer

The other dimension of child pornography is distributing where someone is guilty of child pornography if:

  • They distribute the child pornography content

  • They possess child pornography intending to disseminate

  • They store child pornography, where it is easily accessible by others spreading it.

Producing child pornography is also a grave offense. The production is usually through:

  • Fomenting, permitting or causing a child to engage in a legally prohibited sexual act

  • Simulating children in a sexually related action using technology

In both of these two incidents, the child pornographer must intend to reproduce through filming or photography or knowing that it can be reproduced. The perpetrator is also guilty when they participate in the sexually related performance with the minors.

The state and the federal law prohibits child pornography to protect the physical, emotional, and psychological welfare of the minors who may be subjected to harm by participating or depiction in such sexually related content. The prohibition of using children in pornography cannot be successful without curbing the dissemination and advertisement about the sexually-related content where they are involved.

Causes of Child Pornography

The majority of child pornography perpetrators and consumers are male of the white race who have no prior criminal record. A recent report from the Bureau of Justice on the statistics of those prosecuted were 97% males, 87% of the white race, 70% were unmarried, and 79% committed no prior criminal acts as per the records. The percentage of those prosecuted for child pornography and had not been involved in prior criminal convictions shows the extent to which child pornography is widely perpetrated privately and commercially in such a clandestine manner. The partaking in child pornography, its distribution and production are explained by factors such:

  1. The Gratification of Sexual Motives

Viewing or creation of child pornography may be attributed to the pedophilic tendencies of people attracted sexually to prepubescent minors. Pedophilia, as an expression of sexual preferences, makes the perpetrators view or produce pornographic content that is in line with their innate sexual desires. The sexual gratification when individuals:

  • View child pornography because they are threatened by the environment of adult sexual intimacy and therefore turn to children who may not arouse their fears. It is no surprise that a significant proportion of persons prosecuted for child pornography, according to the report above, are not married.

  • View another person, especially a child in the sexual act, and feel rejuvenated when they see younger versions of themselves and what they would do if they were young again.

  • View also to get sexual arousal, especially if explicit sex acts or naked genitals of young children turn them on.

  1. Making Money Through Child Exploitation

Other people produce child pornography to earn income. There are many anonymous visits to such sites, and therefore people download, and the creators earn money. The profits made through this insidious business involving child exploitation sustain the industry. This industry hence operates in the black market.

  1. Psychological Expression of Control

People also use child pornography to escape their rough past during their childhood. This way, they get over or subdue their aching scars.

  1. Emotional Distraction

Some child pornography customers view pornography to shroud the marauding turbulence of emotions and experiences. People try to escape:

  • Sexual frustrations

  • Depression

  • The emptiness associated with loneliness

  • Anxiety and stress

The child pornography purportedly helps these people escape their real life and get a respite. People suffer sexual frustration due to:

  • Broken relationships

  • Failed marriages

  • Erectile dysfunction

  • Medical procedures which make them unable to enjoy sex

  • Failure to reach orgasm with their partners

  • Sexual guilt

  • The appearance and attributes of their genitals

  • The suppression of inner and unfulfilled sexual desires

  • Wrong expectations when having real sex

  • Their inability to seduce women and win their affections

Loneliness can be experienced even while with people if their interactions and conversations do not answer the wants of their inner persons. Familiarity and the need to try something new sexually can be a source of loneliness.

Effect of Child Pornography on Minors

The impact of child pornography is worse than any nightmare. Most of the children involved in these obscenities are not forced physically and know the villains. The children may endure exploitation in child pornography for a while before being rescued or lead a wasted adult life if not lucky enough to come across a reformation program. The children are recruited in the production of child pornography in the following ways:

  • By being enlisted in prostitution from an early age due to poverty or influence is filmed during the act by their clients or the owners of the brothels who sell or spread it.

  • Children are sexually molested through heinous acts such as repeated rape by relatives and acquaintances who produce the actions and distribute them.

  • The minors may even be coerced to participate in child pornography by being groomed through the consent of their guardians.

  • Children are also kidnapped from countries by human trafficking barons who sell them to brothels where they are enlisted to commercial sex industries. Their filmed content is sold to customers in most subtle websites.

Pedophiliacs also insert themselves into the lives of the minors by getting their trust and isolating the juveniles. After the child is helpless, the relationship is sexualized. The control exercised and afterward, the broken trust may have a lasting impact on the child’s future interpersonal relationships.

The effects of child pornography on victim minors include:

  1. Physical Effects

The juveniles are subjected to physical pain since the perpetrators are adults, and sexual acts are painful due to unmatched sizes of genitalia. Before nature adjusts to the abuse, they endure a lot of pain. Internal bleeding may also result from the ordeals.

The minors can get pregnant in most cases as they progress in age or if they have reached puberty. Some of these children are forced to use contraceptives or send out of the brothels once they get unwanted pregnancies. Unprotected sex may make the minors contract sexually transmitted infections since the unscrupulous child pornographers do not care about their wellbeing. The treatment as sex objects increases the harms of child pornography.

  1. Psychological Effects

The minors in most times suffer from a post-traumatic disorder, which comes with its package of depression. The physical pain sinks to the heart and is coded psychologically into the child’s body and resurfaces highly, even with a little stimulus. The minors develop sleep and eating disorders as the sights of the ordeal, such as being in the presence of unfamiliar bodies and engaging in acts they do not understand, is always before them. The weight of the guilty shame and betrayal of the sacred trust that they expected from their guardians may be too deep to heal, and suicide tendencies may result.

The minors also develop dissociative symptoms and rarely interact with people due to distrust of anyone. The depression, guilt, and shame are always lulled with alcohol and other substance abuse. The abuse interferes with their ability to develop self-esteem and maintain the identity that enables them to stand out. They live humiliated lives, knowing that their agonizing images during their abuse remain somewhere on the internet for people to satisfy their rabid desires. The minors also have problems with sexual development in both physical and emotional aspects. They may not be able to form standing relationships, and their reproductive organs may be damaged to have a posterity. Disruptions at this stage of child development may interfere with the child’s ability to get an education and lead a happy life in childhood even if the cycle of sexual abuse is cut short. The child may always live in fear and helplessness.

Probable Cause in Child Pornography

When the police have sufficient ground to base suspicion that in an area child pornography is done, they can carry out on a broader scale-search to ascertain this suspicion. Probable cause for child porn exists based on the suspect’s behavior when near children or suggestive actions when proximate to children. The existence of a probable cause makes some states grant the police and prosecutors permission to involve the technical experts to use history trails of the suspects surfing on the internet to see any lead to strengthen the evidence for prosecution. The forensic experts navigate the browsing history of all the electronic devices in the home to get any trace of the existence of possession, distribution, and production of child porn. Any child porn video impounded in the suspects strengthens the ground for the charge.

Through the observations, the cops can establish whether suspects perpetuates child porn crimes. The police can also keep track of internet activity to monitor what websites are visited and what downloads people consume from specific websites and the types of uploads sent to their sites with carefully encrypted names to minimize suspicion. Some police also subscribe to particular websites where the minors’ content is published to avert the chances of distributing child porn by monitoring the content posted.

The probable cause can also be established by following internet exchanges with minors and getting a pattern of how the minors are stalked. Police can use common sense to study human interactions to identify a child porn suspect who may publicly seem likely to commit illicit relations with children. The study of social interactions can lead to the arrest of a right person who possibly has child porn materials in their homes or office gadgets.

Statute of Limitations as Applied to Child Porn

Like in other cases, the law requires the prosecutors to bring a charge against child pornography perpetrators within a specified period, which may range to several years. The expiration of these numbers of years renders the prosecution unable to bring a valid charge against the suspect. The Statute of Limitations is meant for the following reasons:

  • To be able to charge the suspect when the witnesses' memory can give a reliable and fresh account. This ensures that recall bias does not intrude into the witness’s version of the child porn case. The witnesses are also not lost to follow-ups.

  • This time allows the jury to make decisions within a specified period and save time for other cases.

Therefore, the prosecutors must gather enough evidence to prosecute the suspect before the expiration of the limitations.

The Statute of Limitations can also be lifted, especially when the minor is yet to reach the majority age where their testimony is held and cannot be altered by any external pressure. Prosecutors can always turn to the applicable state statute of limitations if it exists. In this case, the California statute of limitations is considered.

Californian State Law on Child Pornography

The California Penal Code 311 PC criminalizes: 

  • Knowingly distributing through printing, duplicating, sending, advertising, and transporting any form of child pornography.

  • Deliberately being in possession and control of any child porn produced using a person who was below 18 years.

  • Knowingly recruiting coercing or wooing a child to participate in the production of child pornography.

Child porn, according to this law, is any material depicting a person who is below the age of 18 years engaging in sexual conduct. This sexual conduct ranges from masturbation, sexual intercourse, oral and anal sex. The suspect is only guilt if they knew that the material they possess has sexual behavior involving a minor. If pornographic material in question is obscene and appeals to the excretion, sex, and nakedness, then one is guilty of flouting the child pornographic laws.

Possible Defenses

The following are some of the legal defenses that the defense lawyer will put against the prosecution:

  1. Not Knowing

The attorney may defend you that you did not distribute nor possess the material referred to as child porn. For instance, you may unknowingly download content from a website link that is not adequately labeled to be containing child porn. You could also have clicked the wrong link mistyped the search words or downloaded a malware that downloaded child porn into your device. A person may unknowingly have child porn in storage devices and gadgets such as those used in workplaces.

  1. Not Child Pornography

The defense attorney should also argue and demonstrate that their client had material that, to all intent and purposes, does not qualify to be child porn. The defense is only possible by a firm grip of the applicable state law and looking into the loopholes as presented in the charge sheet.

  1. Material Meant for Legitimate Purpose

The defense may also argue that child pornography material was meant for educational, medical, or scientific purposes, which legitimates you to have the content. This means that the suspect is not guilty.

  1. Police Conducted Unlawful Search

The law protects the citizens of the United States from any unlawful searches from police, forensic experts, and private investigators. The evidence gathered from the consequential seizures may not be held against the suspect since the right legal procedures have not been followed during the search. The defense lawyer can use this defense, for instance, if no search warrant was issued or the order was defective.

  1. Entrapment

Sometimes the police manning pornographic websites may trap a suspected person to sell them child pornographic material while undercover. They then use the network of undercover police officers to arrest the suspect. In this case, the suspect is lured into committing the crime. The evidence obtained from such an incident cannot be binding for the prosecution to continue.

Crimes Charged Alongside Child Pornography

There are certain crimes that may result in additional charges or criminal charges the prosecution may prefer over the child pornography charges brought against you. The following are crimes that the prosecutor may introduce:

  1. Committing a Lewd Act with a Child

The charge of committing a lewd act in public is brought against suspects who produce child pornography for:

  • Touching a child sexually.

  • Causing a child to touch themselves or somebody else sexually.

  1. Revenge Pornography

If one is accused of distributing pornography, the charge of revenge pornography is also brought against them according to the Penal Code 647j4 PC of Californian state. Here the person is charged for sharing or making accessible the sexual images of somebody else to cause them to harm through emotional distress.

  1. Statutory Rape

If the accused is suspected of the production of child pornography and is involved in the sexual acts with a minor, the person is charged with statutory rape. The charge is leveled against them for allegedly committing sexual intercourse with a person who is below 18 years. The statutory rape charge is brought against the offenders because the minor is lawfully considered unable to make an informed decision, and by soliciting them into intercourse took advantage of their vulnerability.

Penalties for Perpetuating Child Pornography

Most child pornography offenses are charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. When charged as a misdemeanor, the following are the penalties:

  • Serving a maximum of 1-year jail term in a county prison

  • Paying a fine that ranges from $1,000 to $2,500

When the child pornography offense is charged as a felony, one is entitled to serving up to three years in state prison. When convicted in California for child pornography, they must register as sex offenders.

Effects of Conviction for Child Pornography

When a non-citizen of the United States is convicted of child pornography, they are deported. They cannot be allowed entry into the country again hence suffering specific immigration results.

One can get expungement so that the penalties resulting from the conviction are wiped out. The charges are expunged upon successful completion of the jail term, probation or whatever penalty was imposed.

If the suspect is charged with child pornography as a felony and is convicted of the crime, the convict loses all their rights to obtain and possess guns in California.

Find an Orange County Criminal Lawyer Near Me

Being charged with child pornography can be life-changing. You may be subjected to seizure and searches that violate your rights or arrested by police who abscond the legal discipline when arresting you. The Orange County Criminal Lawyer team identifies the circumstances in your case and we defend you by diligently working with experts who collect the evidence to identify weaknesses in the charges. We then use the shortcomings to ensure you are acquitted, or penalties are reduced. Call us today by dialing 714-262-4833 to get your case considered.