“Salacious” Pictures of Teen Model at Heart of Lawsuit

Posted August 22, 2011 in Your Family & The Law by Arthur Buono
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What’s a parent’s responsibility to control the commercial exploitation of a minor child? The parents of a teen-aged model are suing Urban Outfitters, other retailers, and a photographer for, in their words, the "salacious" pictures of their daughter published without their consent. The photographer says the images were stolen from him.

     
  • Parents sue photographer, retailers for unauthorized use of daughter’s image
  • Claim the photos depict her in a "salacious" manner
  • Some parents have faced child porn charges for less exploitive pictures
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Line Between Fashion and Child Porn Is Somewhere Around Here

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The lawsuit echoes the stir created a couple of weeks ago by a Vogue magazine layout. That spread featured a 10-year-old girl dressed in adult styles, settings and poses. By comparison, the images complained of in this lawsuit include one of the girl posing on a motorcycle and another of her toting a six-pack of beer - with two cans gone - along on a skateboard.

While the lawsuit asks damages only for the unauthorized publication of the photos, it also alleges the images may violate federal and state child pornography laws. On the other hand, it’s said the parents approved of the photo shoot, but insisted the pictures not be published. The images are not unlike many others of this model available online, some taken when she was 14, apparently.

Assuming the images are pornographic, could the parents as well as the photographer (and the retailers) have violated the law? There have been some really stupid child pornography charges filed against innocent parents who took photos of their tykes bathing or infants breastfeeding. Kids even have faced such charges for sexting nudes of themselves - for kicks and with no thought of exploitation. Nude or sexually suggestive photos of adults are constitutionally protected, whether you consider them art or smut. Similar pictures of kids, not so – even fashionable ones.

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