아동·청소년의 성보호에 관한 법률상 아동음란물 정의규정에 대한 미국법과의 비교 연구

Abstract

Protecting children from the abuse of sexual predators is of utmost national importance. Traditional child pornography, which includes actual children in its production, necessarily involves the sexual abuse or exploitation of children. Clearly, advances in technology have made that task harder because current law made no distinction between materials depicting images of real children engaged in sexually explicit conduct from those depicting “virtual” children. In responding to these changes in technology, however, Congress have tried to revise the current law, ‘The Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse’ in order to alleviate anxiety of society. This Note will begin in Part I by providing an issue. Part Ⅱ will describe and explain the definition of child pornography with the traditional concerns associated with child pornography, its dangers, and the rationale behind its proscription. It will then briefly outline ‘the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse’, the statute at issue in child pornography. Part III will examine several U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the issue of child pornography in order to find implication to the Korean law. Part IV will analyze the public interest of ‘the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse’ and conclude that the revised statutory definition of child pornography shall be again reviewed in support of research about the link between sexual abuse and child pornography.