Cyberporn

Making, distributing or accessing cyberporn (cyber porn) is not necessarily a crime. Cyberporn is like regular pornography; it is just accessible on the Internet. Pornography is anything that is created to cause the sexual arousal or sexual excitement of the person who witnesses it. Pornography is not inherently illegal, but the point at which it becomes illegal is difficult to define. Supreme Court Justice Stewart famously described pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964) as, “I know it when I see it.”

The Supreme Court has more recently defined the legality of pornography/obscenity sales and possession in the following way, “no one will be subject to prosecution for the sale or exposure of obscene materials unless these materials depict or describe patently offensive ‘hard core' sexual conduct specifically defined by the regulating state law, as written or construed.” Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973). Almost everything having to do with child pornography (producing, possessing, or distributing images of minors is illegal). Obscene or child pornography whether distributed or viewed on the internet is a sex offense and can result in incarceration along with lifelong sex offender registration.