That's exactly right - and the chances of being proven innocent are negligible, since the government holds all the chips. Of course, that's not really their main concern - they don't plan on prosecuting everyone who shoots that kind of material. Their real goal is to scare people into NOT producing it.But that's the government's approach in general. The best example (that is to say, the WORST example) involves the documentation a producer is required to keep for every model who appears in any "sexually explicit" portrayal. The justification for requiring the documentation, of course, is to make sure no minors appear in porn. Makes sense, right? Well, read on.
First, there is no clear-cut definition of "sexually explicit" - and there are varying legal opinions, all justifiable, that say:
1. sexually explicit only involves actual sexual contact
2. sexually explicit includes nudity - or just *some* types of nudity
3. sexually explicit can involve NON-NUDE models if they are portrayed in a certain way or acting in a certain way.
But what's worse is that you have to keep detailed documentation for every depiction (not just every model, but for every photo and every video where the model appears) in a SPECIFIC FORMAT that cross-references the models by a number of criteria, including every "professional" name they've ever used, anywhere. For example, if they danced in a strip club ten years ago under the name Crystal, that has to be in your records. And even if a model is obviously 40 or 50 years old, you still have to have perfect records for her - to show she's not under 18. Guilty until proven innocent, you say?
And what's worse than THAT - is that if you make a single mistake in your RECORD KEEPING - it's punishable by up to five years in prison.
So, as you can see, the goal really isn't to make sure that no one has filmed a minor. If that truly was the goal, the government could just knock on a producer's door and say "We understand Model X may be underage. We'd like to see your records on her." The producer could then go to a file cabinet, pull out a copy of Model X's legal ID and model release, and prove that there was nothing illegal about the filming.
But instead, the government shows up and simply says "We want to see all of your records." The producer then has to show ALL of their cross-referenced, by-the-book records --- and if ANY of the records are done incorrectly, the producer could find himself behind bars.
So their real goal is simple: scare people into saying "it's not worth it, I'm not going to film it."
Bottom line: you're not only guilty until proven innocent if you have a young-looking model on your site. You're guilty until proven innocent if you have ANY explicit content - and by the way, you have to guess what "explicit content" really means.
(P.S. This record-keeping is not a "no big deal" thing - it costs just about every producer, even the small ones, thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to do it properly.)
