Colorado is big on protecting kids and that is good. Colorado prosecutes the possession of even one nude image of a child, and that is bad. Sexual Exploitation of a Child, C.R.S. 18-6-403, is designed to protect kids by criminalizing the possession, manufacture, or distribution of sexually explicit images of kids. In today’s high volume, high speed computer world, innocent men and women get caught in this law’s broad reach.
Pornography use is legal in our country and downloads of pornography can involve hundreds and thousands of images. Many times, a download contains so many images that a user never views them all. If a download includes images of children (those under 18), it can result in a charge of Sexual Exploitation of a Child.
Another way we’ve seen innocent people charged with this crime is when dozens or hundreds of thumbnails photos are loaded onto a computer into the temporary internet files. Thumbs.db is a mechanism where the computer stores images which have been clicked on for faster viewing in the future. Even if the image is not saved or if it is deleted (after the viewer realizes its illegal content), the thumb.db file remains.
Temporary internet files are written onto a user’s hard drive. Imagine the scenario where a web page full of images loads automatically onto a computer. Many are seen and many are not, unless the user scrolls down the page. If these unseen images contain child nudity / naked pictures, the government will charge Sexual Exploitation of a Child. This can happen even if the user never saw the images.
If others use your computer, or if you buy a used computer, beware. Even if the images are deleted by that user, if child pornography was viewed, there is a record in the unallocated space of the hard drive. Those images will remain until overwritten by your computer. These “deleted” images can be recovered by special programs like EnCase used by the government.
Finally, nude images taken by a parent or grandparent of a young child in the bathtub or sprinkler, are often charged as child porn by over zealous police. These images are not sexually explicit material, and are not illegal.
If contacted by police who want to search your computer’s hard-drive, be smart, exercise your right to remain silent, and call the experienced Sexual Exploitation of a Child lawyers at the O’Malley Law Office, P.C., at 303-731-0719. Together, we can protect your future.