아동·청소년이용음란물의 개념적 한정성(限定性)-「아동·청소년의 성보호에 관한 법률」제2조의 문제점 -

Abstract

The definition of ‘pornography involving children and adolescents’ in Korea, under the Protection of Children and Adolescents Against Sexual Exploitation Act, is any material (and that can include digital) that visually depicts a person who is under 19, or a person or images of a person who is depicted to be under 19, involved in sexual activity or depicting part of body of that person, which shall amount to significant damage to, and distortion of, dignity of human sexuality. According to the explanatory report prepared by the National Police Agency, the definition also stretches to cover adults over the age 19 who are made to appear as if they’re children and adolescents involved in sexual acts. In Korea, the Supreme Court admitted that the concept of obscenity is relative and fluid with the changes of the society and age; the Court held that it is undesirable for the state to strictly regulate or prohibit pornography, because of its very close relationship with individual privacy, the right to the pursuit of happiness, and diversity in contemporary society. Nonetheless, there must be reasonable ground to place more strict regulations on the pornography involving children and adolescents than on any other obscene and indecent material perpetrating into our daily life, as long as the main purpose of the legal regulation of pornography involving children and adolescents is not to maintain some form of social control on obscene and indecent material in general, but to tackle the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and adolescents. In that sense, it is justified to treat the pornography involving children and adolescents specifically, and also possible to draw a line between such pornography and any other obscene contents.