For most people, when they are confronted with the idea of child pornography they think about photographs of underage girls and even prepubescent minors. Specifically photographs. Not drawings, paintings, or digital renderings. And yet, whether you knew that or not, having “art” that depicts the sexual abuse of children and minors can also get you into trouble. It’s a felony in Michigan!

In late June of 2016, the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office filed felony child pornography charges against two men who were serving prison sentenced for sex crimes. The new charges were because the pair had been caught with hand drawn pictures and hand-written stories depicting child sexually abusive material. That’s what we call kiddie porn in Michigan. What’s that you say? Child pornography without any children? You better believe it.

Guy Lendrum and Christopher Czarnik were both faced with child pornography charges, even though what they possessed didn’t actually involve real children in any way. According to Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy M. Maat of the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office, real children are not needed for it to count as “kiddie porn,” which is exactly what happened.

In explaining the situation to the court at the time, Maat said that Czarnik “… drew pictures and wrote stories about young children engaged in explicit sexual acts. The pictures that he drew and the stories that he told included characters that were 6 years old, 7 years old, 8 years old, 9 years old and 5 years old. The stories and illustrations included sexually graphic and sexually explicit situations.”

When you think about it, however, this concept is hardly new. People have been drawing explicit diagrams of sexual encounters since well before Rome ruled the known world. (In fact, pornographic graffiti was actually quite common in Rome.) In recent years, however, with the advent of the internet, a person can find pretty much anything they’re looking for online. As a result, ‘cartoon porn’ and explicit animations are a dime a dozen now-a-days. Hentai, the darker side of the much-beloved Japanese style cartoons “anime,” is an example of this.

Both Michigan and federal law are very clear about the fact that child pornography is considered to be illegal contraband. Michigan defines “kiddie porn” as “Any film, photograph, negative, slide, magazine, or other visual medium depiction, electronic visual image, computer or computer-generated image or sound recording which is of a child (under age 18) or appears to include a child engaging in a sexual act.”

Federal law, however, defines child pornography as:

“Any person who, in a circumstance described in subsection (d), knowingly produces, distributes, receives, or possesses with intent to distribute, a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that:

1.

• depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and
• is obscene; or

2.

• depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; and
• lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;

It is important that everyone be aware of this, because there seem to be a surprising number of people who believe that if it isn’t video footage or photographs, it won’t count. Unfortunately, in this case, ignorance is not bliss, and being unaware of the law can get you years behind bars, followed by decades on Michigan’s sex offender registry for not being familiar with exactly how the law defines child pornography.

At The Kronzek Firm, we have handled child pornography cases for decades. Our criminal defense attorneys can be reached a 1 866-766-5245.