mark@elsie.UUCP (08/02/84)
<> I read an article in the Post today that both shocked and scared me. It seems that a six year old girl, after taking a bath, decided to come down stairs and do somersaults on the living room floor, in the buff. Her parents were delighted and took some pictures. Someone at the developing lab saw them, thought they might be child pornography, and called the cops; who then proceeded to arrest both parents!! Believe it or not, the father was convicted, even though there was no evidence that he intended to distribute or sell the photographs. Apparently just the possession of such photos is a crime in the state of Illinois. So, the father is on a years probation and has had a nervous breakdown; the child is a ward of the state, though apparently back with her parents. I imagine that some county prosecutor is running for reelection at a "protector of the children", and not as a destroyer of families and reputations. Did our paper (the Washington Post) get this right? I hope not! I certainly hope there's more to this sorry affair than meets the eye (or the first reading). Good grief, I have pictures of my little girl, right after a bath, parading around the room, happy to be alive, waving a pair of socks like they were pom-poms. Had I better burn them? -- Mark J. Miller NIH/NCI/DCE/LEC UUCP: decvax!harpo!seismo!umcp-cs!elsie!mark Phone: (301) 496-5688