One day after President Bush signed the "Amber Alert" child protection law, the executive director of Adult Sites Against Child Pornography said her group has no problem with the virtual child porn ban that is part of the new law.
Irvine said any discussion of virtual child porn, among adult industry players or elsewhere, "has to start off from" the point that it is still child porn, even if an actual child was not used in the making of the virtual child porn image.
"Any professional adult site company in this country doesn't sell or produce child pornography," Irvine said. "They have the 2257s. And the leaders in this country are doing everything in their power to stamp out this horrific crime against innocent children."
However, Irvine warned that supporting legislation that helps eradicate child porn is one thing, but using the new law as an excuse to investigate legitimate adult entertainment businesses – or ignoring where it might bump against legitimate First Amendment rights – is something else again.
Bill Lyon, chairman of Free Speech Coalition, which successfully fought the former Child Pornography Protection Act as a too-sweeping encroachment on the First Amendment, said he would comment on the new virtual child porn ban in the Amber Alert law later May 1.
The issue as always is a sensitive issue for the adult Internet, many of whose top players have taken active stances on behalf of stamping out child porn on and offline. Sex.com president Gary Kremen, who is a founding sponsor and advisory council member, agrees with Irvine. "There is no compromise on this one," he said from his San Francisco office. "I think virtual is just as bad as actual. I understand people's argument on the other side, but I just don't agree. I'm ok with this ban."
Kremen said he understands where people might argue the virtual child porn ban as it appears in the new Amber Alert law comes too close to punishing mere thought, as opposed to actual speech or expression. "Maybe that's what people would say, and that's the only legitimate argument against (the ban)," he said. "But I really got to stay on the program with Joan."
And Irvine said she understands the argument advanced by Free Speech Coalition and others, distinguishing images that are not created from actual, living children - a critical point in FSC's successful push against the former Child Pornography Protection Act, which the Supreme Court struck down as an overly broad encroachment on the First Amendment last year.
But she also said that adult industry professionals don't have as much to fear under that part of the new Amber Alert law as people might think.
"(ASACP is) against all forms of child porn, all forms or images of child pornography," Irvine said. "Words that denote or make people believe that there is child pornography. If it's trying to make people feel that it's child pornography, then we're not supportive of that. There is a difference between adult entertainment and child pornography. One is legal, one is illegal and horrific. And that's why the adult aite community is doing everything in its power to stamp out child pornography."
The new Amber Alert law also makes it a crime to lure unwitting Netizens to adult sites by way of fake domain names or e-mail subject lines or text messages. But Kremen said he wasn't entirely certain how effective that or any law would be in the long run, when it comes to stamping out spam - porn and otherwise - or ending deceptive tactics in luring the unwilling. He said it compared to Prohibition's failure to stamp out alcoholic beverages.
""People forge our domain name as a reply address all the time," he said. "The good news there for us is, all but the real dumb system administrators and network administrators realize it's a forged 'from' or subject line, and they don't blame us. We've had lawyers write letters to people who block us, that we don't send out any of that at all. We send warning letters, and they actually work.
"But I see how this is going to affect people who send the spam a lot," he continued. "If there is such a thing as ethical spam, well, the ethical people don't do that. Is there legally any way to stop spam? Technically, it's tough. And it's a prohibition problem."
Kremen also agreed with legal analysts who have said such anti-spam laws, like the Amber Alert's fake-to-porn amendment and a new anti-spam law signed by Virginia's governor earlier this week, are likeliest to have jurisdictional questions obstruct their potential impact.
