It seems that the phrase ‘its for the children’ can be used to justify almost any law you want to get passed. But this case is reaching a new low:

In a federal indictment announced this week, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Pierson, 43, of being a child pornographer–even though even prosecutors acknowledge there’s no evidence he has ever taken a single photograph of an unclothed minor.

It sounds like some prosecutor has a vendetta against Pierson, or maybe he forgot to pay his kickback money to the local goon squad last month.

First Amendment scholars interviewed Wednesday raised questions about the Justice Department’s attack on Internet child modeling. They warned that any legal precedent might endanger the mainstream use of child models in advertising and suggested that prosecutors’ budgets might be better spent investigating actual cases of child molestation.

If they continue down this path they are going to have to start tossing the parents of beauty pageant contestants into jail as well. Have you seen how they dress up their 8 year old girls? I don’t like the sexualization of pre-teens, but there is nothing illegal about it. Using the excuse that these pictures might attract a pedophile is just an excuse for a grand-standing prosecutor to try and make a name for themselves. If you accept that argument then you ought to be calling for a dress code in your local shopping mall, have you seen how girls dress these days?

Prosecution of real child pornography is a good thing. I especially like the sting operations that snare a pervert showing up for a tryst with a 12 year old and finding a TV camera in their face. But go after the real criminals. By going after people who are obviously engaged in a lawful business you are confusing the definition of what real child porn is.

Hat tip to Bob Thompson, who has this to say:

As Ayn Rand pointed out fifty years ago, the goal of all these ridiculous laws is to make all of us criminals, because the government can control criminals. Arbitrary and selective enforcement means we’ll all be afraid to do anything at all for fear of being arrested. Am I now to be imprisoned if I take a photograph of my 13-year-old friend Jasmine and some government dolt decides it’s too sexy? That’d be a nice way to force critics of the government to shut up, now wouldn’t it?