[GeronL]

nude photographs of kids online, not porn of course, is legal. Some of the sites will make you very mad though so don’t look for them.

[Graybeard58]

nude photographs of kids online, not porn of course, is legal.

Why would you say that? Try posting a photo of a nude child and see how quick you go to jail if caught.

[bornred]

Sexually explicit conduct is defined under federal law (18 U.S.C. §2256) as 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, or lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person.

A large percentage of these photos are likely to fall under the "lascivious exhibition" and/or "masturbation" criteria, given the circumstances under which they were taken.

Often it is a matter of prosecutorial discretion, which has been abused before.

As more and more of this garbage enters circulation, it becomes inevitable that CP will show up on secondhand/refurb phones, memory cards, hard drives, ipods, and so forth. A lot of innocent people will unwittingly come into possession of prohibited images, while at the same time the sickos and perverts will have plausible deniability because "it's everywhere now." Not a good situation at all.