Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I challenge anyone to find actual foundation for the claim that unwittingly recording a child rape in the park is a crime even if the witness reports it and provides the video evidence. Seems to me that this is the "slippery slope" argument taken to unreasonable extremes.


Twenty years ago I would have challenged someone to find a case of a 17 year old being prosecuted for child pornography for taking a picture of themselves. Or a 19 year old being forced to register as a sex offender because of a 17 year old partner.

These laws have already been pushed to unreasonable extremes.


Like I said I haven't thought about or researched this enough to have a strong opinion so I'm relying on really basic assumptions.

"a case of a 17 year old being prosecuted for child pornography for taking a picture of themselves."

Has this happened? Hypotheticals don't help any. We need facts in order to move forward with the conversation.

EDIT: it has, in fact, happened. The facts are indeed in Google.


It satisfies the elements specified in the law. By definition it's a crime. Now, it's quite possible that the police and prosecutors will be reasonable and not prosecute it... but prosecutors and police are human, and quite possible to be unreasonable. In fact, they have great incentive to prosecute open-and-shut cases and rack up their conviction count.


Here's a description of a similar case that discusses the catch-22 that the witness is in: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=2xkDvMQlh-YC&pg=PA23...


There is no need to slip before the argument is valid, so there is no slippery slope argument.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: