US v. Williams (06-694)

Child Pornography and the First Amendment

Table of Contents

Table of Contents .1 Introduction .2

Child Pornography 4

Related Laws .7

The First Amendment .7 Discussion .8 Related Cases .12

Child Pornography in Relation to the First Amendment .14

Recommendation .18 Conclusion .19 References .22

Introduction

Child pornography is of the major issues that face the world today According to the Adults Against Child Pornography Reporting Center (n .d , child pornography is one of the most offensive and serious problems on the net

. In many countries , there have reports of child pornography ranging from pornographic materials that feature women and children , to human trafficking involving underage women and children that are set to work for prostitution or pornographic productions . In addition , human rights advocates consider child pornography as one of the basic violations of human rights as it deprives the children of their very basic rights and exposes them to violation and abuse

The Internet is one of the biggest threats in the fight against child pornography . The Internet allows for unregulated and undetected child pornography related practices like the purchase , display and distribution of child pornographic materials . According to The Adults Against Child Pornography Reporting Center (n .d , unscrupulous individuals and webmasters continue to distribute through the web , their perversions and predatory behavior using underage children in their websites

In to address these problems , governments are becoming vigilant against child pornography . Efforts like the ban on pornographic materials , in general , the regulation of video and movie distributions and even piracy has proved inutile to crack down the syndicates involved in child pornography . Despite these meaningful efforts , child pornography , and pornography in general has been difficult o eradicate especially in this modern age where the Internet and other media have become the primary venues for pornography . In the internet for example there are various websites that contain pornographic materials , worst feature underage children

U .S . v . Williams (06-694

One of the most controversial efforts of the United States federal government is the enactment of laws that will not only regulate pornography but will also stop child pornography . One of these legislations is the anti-child abuse or the Protect Act of 2003 . The violent reactions to the Act brought before the Court the case of United States versus Williams , docketed 06-694 . In line with this Act , various criticisms and petitions to consider this law unconstitutional emerged One of the basic bases for these petitions is the First Amendment of the United States Constitution . In a report by the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Law (2007 , as a petition to consider unconstitutional Protect Act of 2003 , petitioners argue that the Act criminalizes speech that is protected by the First Amendment . According to them , the law creates criminal responsibilities fort he advertisement or promotion of material that implies the existence of child pornography even if there is really no actual pornography (University of Pittsburgh School of Law , 2007 After oral arguments were heard , the Eleventh Circuit of the Court of Appeals , in...