More and more European Content Producers are choosing to do business with American webmasters. While citizens of foreign countries cannot be compelled to comply with United States’ restrictions on the creation of adult material, business realities are forcing foreign content producers to consider voluntary compliance. American webmasters, painfully cognizant of the increasing need to focus on legal compliance, consistently reject foreign content that is not produced in compliance with 18 U.S.C. §2257. Non-compliant content not only increases the risk that an underage model could slip through, but failure to strictly comply is itself a federal felony, exposing those involved to a 2-year prison term. Given the substantial compliance motivations involved, foreign content producers are expected to adopt the U.S. requirements as the global standard for creation of sexually explicit imagery.
The following constitutes a bare minimum checklist for compliance with the
requirements of Section 2257:
1) Assume that all erotic images require Section 2257 compliance: While the
law only applies to actual “sexually explicit activity,” it is ill-advised
for the content producer or the webmaster to attempt to guess which images
require compliance, and which can be safely distributed without compliance.
Since child pornography does not require the depiction of sexual activity to
meet the federal definition, such distinctions can be risky business. And,
in any event, a release given by a minor normally is not enforceable.