Child porn laws should reflect criminal laws

“Tougher sentences for those filming or photographing children being raped are completely justified” announced Libertarianz Spokeman on Free Speech Scott Wilson today “but child porn and similar laws should focus on actual crimes, not on recording activities that are legal, such as consensual adult bondage and discipline, urolagnia and adults dressed in school uniforms” he said.

“The definition of objectionable in the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 goes significantly wider than actual criminal acts, and has resulted in people being prosecuted for such absurdities as writing erotic stories of adult BDSM (bondage discipline sado-masochism), which patently are not produced in the commission of a criminal act, and for young adult women dressed in school uniforms in a porn film.”

“Both situations are victimless crimes. Nobody is harmed by someone writing an erotic fantasy and distributing it to others who are willing to read it, in fact the current law is so absurd that people writing about their own sex lives, can be seen as fitting within the current law of being objectionable. The law should only criminalise those who film, photograph or record an actual sexual or violent act as accessories to the crime, not those who sit down and write about their experiences or fantasies”.

“Similarly, if it not illegal to commit an act in real life, such as adults engaging in hardcore fetish, bondage, discipline, sado-masochistic or even incorporating urine in sex play, it should not be illegal to film, photograph or distribute such publications with the consent of those involved. How absurd is it that a bunch of adults engaging in legal, albeit unconventional, sexual acts with each other would be criminalised if they filmed their private activities” Wilson asked.

“The law could be clarified in this matter by simply scrapping the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993, and incorporating clauses in the Crimes Act adjacent to all sex and violent crimes creating an offence of being an accessory to these crimes, which consists of recording, distributing and possessing a publication of the act without the consent of the victim. It would be presumed that such consent could not be obtained from someone underage. Those acting out criminal acts without actually committing them, should also not be included in this, as it is no different from movies where people are ostensibly murdered, when in fact they are people acting.”

“Such changes would protect the freedom of speech contained in the Bill of Rights, and focus on those photographing and videoing actual crimes, such as child rape, rather than victimising people who are not doing anything in real life that is criminal. Then law enforcement efforts can focus on both children and adults that are victims of crimes, and not waste efforts on victimless crimes at the expense of free speech” Wilson concluded.

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