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‘Legal child porn’ comes under fire
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Risk of pedophile stalkers?
Such laws vary from state to state, but in general that would require a prosecutor to show that posing for the Web site would subject a child to a “substantial risk of harm.” In the case of the pre-teen sites, both potential physical harm from a pedophile stalker and possible psychological trauma from being treated as a sexual object could be considered, said Chris Paulitz, an aide to Foley.
The idea that a stalker could track down a child model was bolstered by the fact that Zamost and his WTVJ team were able to track down “Amber” and her family, starting out with only a hint from Webe Web co-founder Jeff Libman that she might live in Palm Beach County and visual clues in the photos and videos in which she appeared.
The girl’s mother and step-father declined a request for an interview, but armed with their identities, the TV crew was able to determine that the mother had been a porn performer on an adult Web site several years earlier. Through court records, the crew also was able to track down the girl’s father, who said he was opposed to the site, Zamost said.
Study of risk urged
But anecdotal evidence like that likely would not be enough to persuade a jury to convict on child endangerment charges, said Howard Davidson, director of the American Bar Association’s Center for Children and the Law.
“One would have to document the risks to children of engaging in these modeling sites … rather than just be speculative about the dangers,” he said. “If there had been cases where kids had been sexually abused as a result of involvement, then I think it would be easier to sustain both in the legislature and, ultimately, in the courts.”
Such an approach also would raise raise serious First Amendment concerns, said Kim Hart, director of the National Child Abuse Defense and Resource Center.
“I think that we need to define child endangerment to make sure that we’re not casting a really broad net,” she said. “Does that mean that today we would charge Brooke Shields’ mother for ‘Blue Lagoon’?”
Hart, whose non-profit group seeks to ferret out cases of falsely reported child abuse, also said that while modeling pictures such as those on the “Lil Amber” site are distasteful, they don’t necessarily equate with endangerment.
“Just because someone does something that you don’t like, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t care about their children,” she said. “… If you want to check out the parents and make sure that the child is being clothed and fed and going to school, fine.”
'Unsavory,' but not illegal
Stephen B. Levine, a professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and an expert on sexuality, made a similar point.
“I think it’s reasonable to think that these sites are pandering to pedophiliac interests ... and they are unsavory,” he said. “But this is America, where we tolerate lots of unsavory things for freedom of expression, and I don’t think we’re willing to give up these freedoms.”
While the implications of the effort to crack down on the pre-teen “model” sites will continue to be debated, the girl known as Amber will no longer figure in the discussions.
She abruptly ended her career as an Internet “model” in December with no explanation and was replaced with a new “Lil Amber,” who bears more than a passing resemblance to the original. A posting on a now-deactivated Yahoo! fan group states that “Amber has passed on her legacy to a new model, 11-year-old Jana. ... Amber supports this group ... and [has] authorized it as Jana’s official fan group.”
Her successor doesn’t yet have her own video, but the “Lil Amber” site promises that one is coming soon.
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