Snuff Films Legal, Nude teens Illegal? What's up with that?

[QtheMuse]

How come in the US it is perfectly legal to have snuff pictures and on your personal computer. Such as films of people getting beheaded, tortured or otherwise murdered in various of gruesome ways yet if a teenager sends another teenager their naked body its time for sex offender registration? Or even a 16 year old sends naked pictures to a 21 year old.

Wouldn't you say nudity is more natural than murder or torture?

 

[HT_Black]

How come in the US it is perfectly legal to have snuff pictures and on your personal computer. Such as films of people getting beheaded, tortured or otherwise murdered in various of gruesome ways yet if a teenager sends another teenager their naked body its time for sex offender registration? Or even a 16 year old sends naked pictures to a 21 year old.

Wouldn't you say nudity is more natural than murder or torture?

I'm pretty sure you get your ass thrown in jail for that...

 

[Sacman]

Because this is 'Merica! we're a country that's like a preteen boy... we're very violent and desensitized but the second something vaguely arousing comes our way we get scared and hit it with sticks and call it unholy because that's what we we're taught in Sunday School...<.<

 

[Comando96]

Its one of these personal opinion things, however we all know the source motive for the laws against paedophilia.

Please don't play the devils advocate this blatantly to start a thread though xD

-----------------------------

One clip I've seen is a Vietcong soldier being executed on the street.

Spoiler: Nothing nasty... its the second before he dies

Yes but the actual footage of a man dying and the blood flowing onto the street.

Thing is he is of age, correct?

I don't know the law but it would be my assumption that if of an age its all fair game of what happened to a person... however... just... O_O the law allows.

I wouldn't imagine the law would allow torture but I may be wrong.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

"Snuff" pictures are generally fake, and the police don't pay much attention to them because it's impossible to tell if it's real, or if it's just good special effects. Snuff films aren't "legal" and if the police can prove that the movie is real then you WILL go to prison for possessing it, but it's difficult to prove the authenticity of the movies unless the victim's body has already been found.

It's not a question of legality, it's a question of proof. Much easier to prove a teenager's age than it is to prove whether a picture is of a real murder or not.

 

[dagens24]

Because America is a very puritanical country. The bible is FILLED with violence, but sex is a big no no.

 

[Blue Hero]

Terrorists. Some terrorists are men. Most men have penises. Penises get erect. Therefore, if you have an erect penis, you are a terrorist. And terrorism, like origami, is illegal. I think their logic is quite solid.

 

[tseroff]

Sometimes it seems ridiculous that kids are going to jail or registering as sex offenders because of their *ahem* indiscretions. However, I think most people agree that the creeps and pedophiles should be going to jail and registering. The problem is, if we let the teenies off easy, then a pedo with a good lawyer will have precedent, and then pedos with amateur lawyers will have precedent. Not a path we really want to take.

As for the snuff films, I have only seen one video in which a person actually dies. Most disturbing thing I've ever seen. (The Vietnam monk's immolation, and that was shown in CLASS)

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that neither are okay.

Edit:

Because America is a very puritanical country. The bible is FILLED with violence, but sex is a big no no.

Careful with your word choice. I'm honestly not trying to sound like an asshole, but the Puritans were totally into sex. (As long as it was "Godly" sex and between a man and wife.) America has drifted, I'd say.

Also, yes the Bible is filled with violence, but you know what else it has? SEX. There's prostitution and incest in JESUS' family line. (Rahab and Lot, respectively.)

Oh, and there's a book of the Bible devoted to sexual desires. The Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, is an erotic love tale that depicts sexual desire as a GOOD thing.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

I didn't find any solid information on this and after a half an hour of looking I'm just tired of searching. I may be wrong on this but both are probably illegal to have. I did find some articles about a Supreme Court case about the legality of videos of animal abuse, which means they would probably need some kind of precedent regarding humans to work from. It's also true that both are illegal to make, as you are breaking laws by committing the recorded act, let alone the recording of the act. Distribution could be illegal due to privacy rights, as most dead people don't consent to the distribution of footage of their deaths, and rarely do their families. The stuff that does exist and can be distributed is probably protected by freedom of the press, or because consent was given by the deceased or whoever was given the right to consent for the deceased about the issue. Illegal to distribute often means illegal to possess, so both are illegal.

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/04/20/supreme-court-to-rule-on-free-speech-claim-over-animal-cruelty-films/ (article on animal "snuff film" case)

As for your question, I think snuff films are worse, and since you'll get put away longer for murder than child molestation the courts seem to agree with me.

 

[SillyBear]

How come in the US it is perfectly legal to have snuff pictures and on your personal computer. Such as films of people getting beheaded, tortured or otherwise murdered in various of gruesome ways yet if a teenager sends another teenager their naked body its time for sex offender registration? Or even a 16 year old sends naked pictures to a 21 year old.

Wouldn't you say nudity is more natural than murder or torture?

Most Americans are fine with the idea of violence in the media. Only the really, really super conservative people really care about that. The average family don't really care at all.

Yet sex? Or nudity? Or the human body and love? There is outrage.

I can't understand why a full front sex scene is taboo yet a full frontal murder scene is completely COMPLETELY accepted.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Note: this isn't just America. It's a symptom of a lot of other countries too.

 

[Cazza]

The way I stay sane is if I see anything snuff. "It's fake" don't look into it to find out. My opinion is snuff is worst than all kinds of nudity.

Don't they get off to snuff anyway?

 

[Shoggoth2588]

An odd question jumps to my mind but I really don't want to start a thread on it...Let's say a 17 year old lies her way onto a porn a couple of months before her birthday. The first film she makes is released and she turns 18 as she's filming the second. Is it still illegal to own/watch said porn even though the woman in question has grown into the legal age?

As for snuff, it's been stated above. Special effects are to the point now (and have been really) that it's damn near impossible to tell the difference between real and fake snuff pics. Also, the U.S. is very desensitized when it comes to violence and yet, the media is really strict when it comes to sexual imagery/content.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

An odd question jumps to my mind but I really don't want to start a thread on it...Let's say a 17 year old lies her way onto a porn a couple of months before her birthday. The first film she makes is released and she turns 18 as she's filming the second. Is it still illegal to own/watch said porn even though the woman in question has grown into the legal age?

It is still illegal. See Traci Lords [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traci_Lords] and the huge scandal around her back in the day. Nearly everything she ever did had to be destroyed after people found out, at least in the US.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Because America protects its children above all other things. You have the freedom to watch fake "snuff" videos. But you do not have the freedom to exploit children. I agree the sexting punishments are way to harsh. There was 2 kids in Wisconsin that were caught by the girls parents. Her mom pressed charges and now BOTH of them are registers sex offenders.

But you can't deny someone something because it violent. The day that comes you'll see a lot less video games on the shelves.

 

[krazykidd]

How come in the US it is perfectly legal to have snuff pictures and on your personal computer. Such as films of people getting beheaded, tortured or otherwise murdered in various of gruesome ways yet if a teenager sends another teenager their naked body its time for sex offender registration? Or even a 16 year old sends naked pictures to a 21 year old.

Wouldn't you say nudity is more natural than murder or torture?

Most Americans are fine with the idea of violence in the media. Only the really, really super conservative people really care about that. The average family don't really care at all.

Yet sex? Or nudity? Or the human body and love? There is outrage.

I can't understand why a full front sex scene is taboo yet a full frontal murder scene is completely COMPLETELY accepted.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Note: this isn't just America. It's a symptom of a lot of other countries too.

We can teach kids never to murder people , but can we teach them to never have sex?

 

[SillyBear]

How come in the US it is perfectly legal to have snuff pictures and on your personal computer. Such as films of people getting beheaded, tortured or otherwise murdered in various of gruesome ways yet if a teenager sends another teenager their naked body its time for sex offender registration? Or even a 16 year old sends naked pictures to a 21 year old.

Wouldn't you say nudity is more natural than murder or torture?

Most Americans are fine with the idea of violence in the media. Only the really, really super conservative people really care about that. The average family don't really care at all.

Yet sex? Or nudity? Or the human body and love? There is outrage.

I can't understand why a full front sex scene is taboo yet a full frontal murder scene is completely COMPLETELY accepted.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Note: this isn't just America. It's a symptom of a lot of other countries too.

We can teach kids never to murder people , but can we teach them to never have sex?

What? Relevance?

 

[krazykidd]

How come in the US it is perfectly legal to have snuff pictures and on your personal computer. Such as films of people getting beheaded, tortured or otherwise murdered in various of gruesome ways yet if a teenager sends another teenager their naked body its time for sex offender registration? Or even a 16 year old sends naked pictures to a 21 year old.

Wouldn't you say nudity is more natural than murder or torture?

Most Americans are fine with the idea of violence in the media. Only the really, really super conservative people really care about that. The average family don't really care at all.

Yet sex? Or nudity? Or the human body and love? There is outrage.

I can't understand why a full front sex scene is taboo yet a full frontal murder scene is completely COMPLETELY accepted.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Note: this isn't just America. It's a symptom of a lot of other countries too.

We can teach kids never to murder people , but can we teach them to never have sex?

What? Relevance?

The reason why violence is okay but not sex.

Children are impressionable, and will want to do whats the see on television . We teach children that violence is bad because it is,teachers and parents constantely tell childrend and teenagers that violence is bad. Now teaching children that sex is bad would spark a sort of mini controvercy , because sex is a natural part of life and is very pleasurable . Teachers couldn't really teach children ( and i include teenagers in this ) that sex is bad without starting a scandale and parents can't really tell children that sex is bad since they had sex to have a child.

Anyways be time kids become teenagers already know where babies come from and that sex is fun, so they'll do it anyways . Whereas teenagers know violence is wrong and won't murder people( in most cases anyways).

 

[DiMono]

Because this is the world we live in: violence is okay, but nudity will turn all children into sex offenders. Personally, I think children should be educated about the naked body and sex at a fairly young age, so they know what they're getting into later in life. The countries with the lowest sex offender and teenage pregnancy rates are those where sex ed begins around age 10.