Quote:
Originally Posted by Olympus
That is what the real issue is: each country have their own interpretation of child-porn. Should I have innocent pictures of my childeren at the beach - the customs can interpret that as childporn.
Currently Italy has forbidden parents for taking pictures of their children in the swimming pool. In the Netherlands we have had discussions of art could be interpreted as (kiddy)porn. Should I have holiday pictures of (half) naked man/woman it could be considered porn - however even in de US you must have naturists and nudists.
Once the customs get access to my personal data/pictures/art I can get into these kind of discussions. Unfortunately it's the US that creates these ineffective measures:
- access to all personal data of anyone that takes a plane and store this ( for 15??? years)
- access to all creditcard data from Euopean citizens to .... (create a blacklist for the US border ??).
And in return the EU is requesting the same information from the US as countermeasure.
Any references to Anne-Frank I consider rather off-topic and offensive.
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As mentioned in my signature, I am frequently off topic, and I fully intended the reference to be offensive. If anyone from any country chooses to argue about Constitutional or human rights with me, I am going to pull out every offense against human rights perpetrated by that poster's particular country and toss it right back at them.
Of course every country has different laws about what does or does not constitute porn. And, if planning a trip to that country, I would suggest to any traveler that they have the common sense to find out what that is.
It is illegal to bring a Bible into many Muslim counties. So, if you are traveling to a Muslim country, it might be wise to remove your copy of the Bible from your digital reader lest you end up with your ass in jail.
If you like to keep lots of photos of naked men, women and children on your laptop ... again, might be a good idea to back them up at home and LEAVE them there during your trip if you are not certain whether possessing them is a crime.
It's a big world. Lots of different laws in lots of different countries. If you plan to travel a lot, it would be wise to get used to that.
Now, as to searching laptops for child porn, if the Netherlands makes sexual intercourse with minors and exploitation of sexual abuse perfectly legal ... then all I can say is "lovely" with a great deal of sarcasm. The people that Customs are generally targeting for laptop searches are those that are just plain notorious for "Child Sex Excursions." If you are returning to the US from one of those countries, you can pretty much bet they are going to search your laptop for photos of your exploits. You say the Netherlands is NOT one of those countries?? Then, really, they don't much care about photos of your naked two year old running through the sprinklers. Those are not considered "child porn" or even "porn" in the US.
Neither, in the US, are pictures of naked men and/or women generally. Even pictures depicting intercourse are not generally illegal as long as it is clear from the photo that the participants are
not minors. It is illegal here to sexually exploit anyone under the age of eighteen (which is the age of consent in most jurisdictions).
If you are going to Italy, you've got a whole "nother" set of problems that I feel absolutely nothing about because I don't live there and I seldom travel there.
So ... if you are not willing to deal with the problems of international travel, by all means stay home. Otherwise, have the sense to respect the laws of those countries to which you travel.