Tennessee Man Charged for Engaging in “Virtual Child Pornography”

June 26, 2009 by Suzanne Conlon

Tennessee resident Michael Wayne Campbell is accused of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor for placing photos of the faces of three young girls on the nude bodies of adult females.

Two of the girls have been identified as local children of Chattanooga, Tennessee aged 10 and 12.  The other seems to be Miley Cyrus, 16, country singer and star of popular TV series “Hannah Montana.”

“When you have the face of a small child affixed to a nude body of a mature woman, it’s going to be the state’s position that this is for sexual gratification and that this is simulated sexual activity,” said Assistant District Attorney Dave Denny during a hearing Wednesday.

Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said that “more and more of these guys are using morphed images, image manipulations” in order to avoid prosecution.

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that “virtual child pornography,” in which no children are actually harmed, is protected speech and therefore is not a crime.  The court wrote in its 6-3 decision that “the visual depiction of an idea—that of teenagers engaging in sexual activity—that is a fact of modern society and has been a theme in art and literature for centuries.”

William Shakespeare’s play Romeo & Juliet as well as recent movies “Traffic” and “American Beauty” were named by the court as examples of art that would be illegal if a law were passed that made illegal “virtual child pornography that appears to—but does not—depict real children.”

 “We see it all the time,” said Allen of this kind of pornography.  “[The Supreme Court ruling] makes it harder for law enforcement.  It makes it tougher for prosecutors.”

Three Court Justices, Sandra Day O’Connor, William Rehnquist, and Antonin Scalia were in strong dissent, saying that “the computer-generated images are virtually indistinguishable from real children.”

John Ashcroft, attorney general at the time of the ruling, released a statement saying that “this morning the United States Supreme Court made our ability to prosecute those who produce and possess child pornography immeasurably more difficult.”

Wednesday, Justin Fitzsimmons, senior attorney with the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse, said that “people are trying to come up with creative ways to continue to sexually exploit children using digital [means].”

Due to the work of child rights advocates, nearly every state has adopted a law in response to the Supreme Court’s 2002 decision that addresses the issue of “virtual” child pornography.