Possession
It is against federal law to possess child pornography that has been mailed; moved in interstate or foreign commerce. For a person to be found guilty of this crime, a jury must be convinced that the government has proven each of these things beyond a reasonable doubt;
- That a person knowingly possessed an item (e.g., book; videotape; computer disk).
- That the item contained at least one image of child pornography.
- That the person knew that the item contained an image of child pornography.
- That the image of child pornography had been mailed; moved in interstate or foreign commerce.
But if a person possessed fewer than three images of child pornography; and promptly and in good faith took reasonable steps to destroy each such image and did not retain the image or allow any person to access the image or a copy of the image or reported the matter to a law enforcement agency and provided that law enforcement agency access to each such image, then a person shall be found not guilty.
It is the government’s burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all the elements listed previously and, in addition, that a persons possession does not fit within the rule previously described.
“Knowingly” means that the act was done voluntarily and intentionally and not because of mistake or accident. “Possess” means to exercise authority, dominion or control over something. The law recognizes different kinds of possession.
“Child pornography” is any photograph; film; video; picture; computer image; computer-generated image of sexually explicit conduct, that was produced by using an actual person under age 18 engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
“Sexually explicit conduct” includes any one of the following five categories of conduct, whether actual or simulated:
- Sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex.
- Bestiality
- Masturbation
- Sadistic or masochistic abuse
- Lascivious exhibition of the genital or pubic area of any person.
An image has been “shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce” if it has been transmitted over the Internet or over telephone lines.