New York Says Viewing Child Porn Online Is Not Illegal – Say What?!

In a very strange ruling yesterday, the New York State court of appeals ruled that the actual viewing of child pornography on the internet is NOT a crime.

Now lets be clear, they aren't saying it's okay to seek out child pornography with this ruling, but what they are saying is that they can no longer throw you in prison if you have it in image cache.  So what does that mean?

If you accidentally view an image that is child porn, you aren't going to be held accountable for that.  Senior Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick stated that the 'purposeful viewing of child porn is now legal in NYS'.  Basically what's going on is that if someone is doing research, and it's found that they had an image on their computer, but didn't download it, they will be safe.

However, it is still illegal to distribute or possess it.  If it's found that you saved, downloaded or printed an image you are going to be in serious trouble.