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Child porn ban in US probed
30/10/2007 23:06 - (SA)
Washington - The Bush administration urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to uphold a US law against the promotion of child pornography, rejecting claims that it limits legitimate creative expression.
Opponents of the provision of the 2003 federal law that sets a five-year mandatory prison term for promoting child porn have said that movies that depict adolescent sex could fall under the law.
But Solicitor-General Paul Clement, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, said the law was not meant to cover movies like Lolita, Traffic, American Beauty or Titanic.
Clement said he had asked the court to uphold the law as part of Congress' effort to protect children by eliminating the widespread market in child pornography.
The US Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the provision because it made a crime out of merely talking about illegal images or possessing innocent materials that someone else might believe was pornography.
In the appeals court's view, the law could apply to an e-mail sent by a grandparent and entitled "Good pics of kids in bed" showing grandchildren dressed in pyjamas.
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