Internet Safety News
"Legal Child Porn?"
by Anne Collier
Web sites featuring "preteen models" operating in "the gray area between [child erotica] and child pornography" have caught the attention of the U.S. Justice Department and "prompted a congressman to declare war on the "reckless endangerment" of such kids by their parents and web site operators."1 U.S. Representative Mark Foley (R-Florida) refers to sites showing pictures of girls as young as 6 wearing revealing clothes and striking sexually suggestive poses but which don't display nudity or overt sexual material. Representative Foley says web site operators and parents who encourage or allow their children to create or "star" in these "fan sites" that attract audiences other than kids are committing "reckless endangerment."
1Mike Brunker. "'Legal Child Porn' Under Fire." MSNBC. March 28, 2002, http://www.msnbc.com/news/730491.asp.
Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.
