Hasn’t it been an interesting day?
First up, Chris Illingworth, a 60 year old from from QLD, has been charged with using the internet to access and publish child-abuse material after he republished a controversial viral video of a man twirling a baby around. As Asher Moses from SMH points out in his article, the same video has been shown on American TV news shows and is widely available online. Some details on the arrest and what happened here.
If you, like millions of other people, watched the video online or on the TV news, it might be time to turn yourself in at your local police station.
Meanwhile, in the case of Alan John McEwan and pornography depicting members of the animated The Simpsons family, the New South Wales Supreme Court ruled that a fictional cartoon character was a “person” within the meaning of the relevant state and commonwealth laws. McEwan was convicted of possessing child pornography and using his computer to access such material – The Simpsons porn – in February. He lost his appeal today.
The magistrate had rejected a submission that cartoon depictions or representations of fictional characters such as The Simpsons were not of “persons”.
Justice Adams said the legislation’s main purpose was to combat the direct sexual exploitation and abuse of children that occurs where offensive images of real children are made.
Didn’t The Simpsons movie feature a penis?
Oh, and how could I forget: The Internet Watch Foundation says the Wikipedia entry for the Scorpions’ 1976 album Virgin Killer could breach child abuse laws. ISPs using the IWF list therefore blocked access to the page and caused a number of Wiki editing problems in the process.
The same list Conroy wants to incorporate into his own ‘clean feed’.
