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Logjam blocks HK child porn laws
From Kristie Lu Stout
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Authorities in the U.S. and U.K. say they are closing the net on online pedophiles, but the crackdown stops at China's borders where a legal bind is making child porn permissible. Perpetrators are walking free since neither mainland China nor Hong Kong have laws against downloading child pornography. "The only thing we could do is let them go, just like that," Priscilla Lui of Hong Kong action group Against Child Abuse told CNN. "Very often abusers, perpetrators, or people who possess or produce or distribute child pornography are walking freely in our community," she says. The situation has promoted calls for Hong Kong's Legislative Council to speed up the passage of the Child Pornography Bill. But the bill has been stuck in a legal limbo for over three years because of a single word -- "possession" -- and a debate over what constitutes possession of online child pornography. Under the draft law, those in possession of child pornography could face a conviction of up to five years. Defining the lawBut while legislators agree that the bill is vital in protecting children, they are concerned about giving authorities too much power. "Our challenge right now is to draw a good definition of 'in possession of' so the innocent won't be prosecuted but there will be good enough legal basis for the police to exercise their power and duty," Hong Kong Legislator Cyd Ho told CNN. Ho fears an obscene image of a child received unsolicited could be grounds for an arrest, even after attempts to destroy it. "Not too many people know how to clean the hard disk, even the professionals. And that could be used as a piece of evidence for prosecution on the basis of 'in possession of,'" Ho says. While lawmakers in Hong Kong debate the wording of the bill, officials in the U.S. and U.K. are dismantling porn rings through "Operation Avalanche," the investigation that netted rock guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend admitted visiting child porn sites but insists he was merely researching the subject. Which raises the question -- should the action be illegal, when there may be no pedophilic intent? To the child rights advocate, the issue is cut and dry. "We do think possession itself should be made a crime because possession reinforces the market and reinforces the production and eventually abuses our children," Lui says.
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