The Supreme Court ruled in April that a definition of child porn as it appears in a 1996 US law is too wide – to the point of being unconstitutional. The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association representing the US porn industry, had challenged the law which expanded a long-standing ban on child porn to prohibit any image that “appears to be” or “conveys the impression” of someone under the age of 18 engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The law targeted computer technologies that can be used to alter an innocent picture of a child into a depiction of a child engaged in sex.
The new law reaffirms the ban on virtual child porn “in a manner that can withstand constitutional review,” according to Congressman Lamar Smith, Chairman of the Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee, who introduced the legislation. It refers to any computer-generated image that is “virtually indistinguishable from that of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”
One member of the House of Representatives is quoted by Reuters, criticising the bill as making the same mistakes as the original legislation, although the bill is supported by the Bush administration. The bill must now be considered by the Senate, where other similar bills have been introduced.