The difference here is that they can sue anyone who has their images of abuse. So if a boy is abused and 50 years later that image is found, the owner of the picture can be sued for having it!

I wonder if any of my "stuff" is still around? I doubt it. Movies from the age of dinosaurs tend to disintegrate. If they were, I'm not sure I would want to see them. It might make me ill. I don't know. I was just a little one then. But I probably had a grace and poise that I have lost.

Puffer

I had a client (now in federal prison) who had images of child sexual abuse with victims who could be identified. Only about four or six victims' images were identified.

He was fined, as I recall, about $15,000 per image that is supposed to go to the identified victims (they were identified and registered by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children).

However, it is not likely the victims will collect as the guy is in federal custody for about 8 yrs and has no assets.

Interesting. And child porn should be prosecuted.

What if I did find some movies made of myself when I was a tad? Would I be prosecuted?

Puffer

I think possession is what they look at, not who is in it. I remember a fellow (who hasn't been around here in years), who shared that his perp sent him DVD's full of the videos he'd made of him.

It came up later, that regardless of who the vids were of, having them was considered a crime. Maybe it varies state to state, I don't know.

I know who you're thinking of. The vids made of me were in the same state as his. But no, I've never seen them and I doubt that I want to. It would probably make me ill.

Puffer

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I also want to emphasize that I don't absolutely know that he was successful at making a "product". I've never seen it or heard of it. If anybody out there has heard of any such item, I would like to know of it. I just think that I was "in" on the production end of it.

They would have been 16mm movies in that day, not dvd's. But he had the capability of producing it because he was a significant figure in the film industry. Of course the whole thing would have been kept secret especially in that day. He was standing behind a big black box while we (the kids) performed. I don't think that at age 4 I really knew what a movie or a movie camera was at first. There was a big skylight overhead. The other boys were from parents or grandparents in the movie industry. The movie maker even took me to a studio where cartoons were being made. The finished cartoons for national distribution were filmed and produced in that location. And NO it was not the company that will first come to your mind. I have seen this studio in a cartoon within the last few years. (Yes, believe it or not I recognized it). There are two different views of that studio that can easily be seen either in a cartoon or on the internet. No I didn't see them actually making the cartoons or filming them there. That was because he took me on a Saturday and the easils were draped with fabric. He lied to me that I would see that part of it. When he took me to the studio where they were having a sex party. A 4-year-old child (me) should never have been there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFC9vnZY93k

I thought at first that I was the model for Tweety, who was pink and naked at first. However the publication date for the Tweety cartoon was before I became involved.

I agree with you there. Not something I'd ever want to remember that clearly.

While I do agree, as a victim of abuse, that thoae responsivle for the productionof such images and videos should be brought to justice, I must disagree with the one model fits all approach. Knowing the vackground and reason for each case is equally important. Research is pointing to more and more case studies of men, abused as children, who have used such images or videos similarly to how a comvat soldier might use graphis war movies, not for sexual gratification but for comfort and reassurance, the mentality of no one else understands or gets what I went through except these other kids. For such men, the answer is not to brand them as predators and criminals but rather to offer a safety net to where they can get help to retrain their brains when panic, anxiety, or nightmares set in, such as through emdr or ifs therapy which is used to help ptsd soldiers recover. Again, I agree predators who are harming children, buying or aelling such images, or promoting such despicable acts should bw brought to justice. But at the same time, possession in and of itself with no other evidence of predation or molestation charges shoukd be looked at closely to consider the purpose and cause. personally woring with such people in probation programs and therapy, I can say this... When a man ia cobvicted of a crime of possession but with no criminal record, no complaints or inappropriate condiuct, no anything else, and he is either erasing what he views out of shame or frustration, this is not a predator but a cry for help that he has cobditioned himself to as what he feels is hia only solutoon to cope with what is going on in him, knowing he cannot come forward for help without fear of prosecution. I know for a fact after conviction men like this who learn emdr or ifs therapy systems go on to lead normal healthy lives... And it makes me wonder, what if the legal system allowed for therapeutic solutions to help such people come forward without fear or retaliation or branding as a criminal. If a combat soldier shoots a beighvor dead because of ptsd related to combat stress, leniency is granted and charges are slackened. But if an abuse survivor leads a life abiding to law and no harm wgile wrestling with his own personal demons of the past and a stop gap that he has used since he was a child or teen, we demonize him and say hes a criminal. ththrough emdr or ifs gh

Again, I support restitution and prosecution to those who are truly predators but in my line of work having seen botg sides of the coin, there are abuse survivors attempting to deal with ptsd through internalization, just like a solder or accident survivor, and those who may deal with it through externalized actions such as drugs, sex, alcohol, and further victimization. Where can a line be drawn? I devote my life to the protection of children, but that also includes the child in adult survivors who is stuck in that grasp of tgeor abusive situation, unable to find peace because of fear. One of my patients put it best when he said that the detective said that his life wasnt over and it would be ok. He told me when she said that all he thought was that is what my abuser always said its going to be ok, when he k ew full well it was all just a big lie and it would never be ok, ever. No one shoukd fwel that it is hopeless.