Right to Remain Anonymous Is Important in Child Pornography Lawsuits, Child Protection News, April 22, 2011

Right to Remain Anonymous Is Important in Child Pornography Lawsuits

Child Protection News
April 22, 2011

http://childprotectionnews.com/

In a child pornography case against his former high school math teacher, a victim and his attorneys filed briefs today defending the victim’s right to remain anonymous. In the case John Doe 18 v. Joseph Clazmer, John Doe 18 seeks to use the pseudonym to proceed in his child pornography case because public disclosure of his name would only re-victimize him. (See Plaintiff’s Initial Brief, Defendant’s Response, Plaintiff’s Reply and Supporting Evidence.)

The public policy behind allowing the identity of victims of sex crimes to remain confidential recognizes that sex crimes involve very personal and private aspects of people’s lives. For a victim, the prospect of having to endure public humiliation in order to prosecute the offender has the effect of discouraging people from reporting sex crimes. It is in society’s best interest that sex crimes are reported and prosecuted, otherwise, child molesters and child pornographers will remain free to prey on more children.

Public identification of the victim is especially damaging in child pornography cases. (See Affidavit of Susan Phipp-Yonas, Ph.D. ) Child pornography is extremely damaging to children because first, they are sexually assaulted by an adult, and second because that sexual assault is recorded and distributed publicly. The public nature of child pornography is actually part of the damage that a victim suffers. The victim always wonders who has seen the sexually explicit images that were uploaded to the internet. For the victim, it feels like everyone has seen the images and the victim feels profound shame at that prospect. To subject a child pornography victim to further public humiliation by publicly identifying them is just simply wrong. If we are serious about combating child pornography, we have to make it as easy and safe as possible for victims to report these crimes.

With that said, it is also very important that the court system treat all parties fairly. Everyone has the right to know who is accusing and suing them. As part of the protection of the victim approach, it is important to inform the Defendant of the identity of the victim. This can be done confidentially, but it must be done. When the Defendant is aware if the identity of the victim then he/she will be in the position to prepare his/her defense and present that defense at trial. There is no requirement that the victim’s name be publicly disclosed in this process. This encourages victims to come forward to get some help and allows the Defendant to prepare and present a defense to the charges.

Finding common ground in the balancing of public policy concerns and victim protection against the need for fairness in court is time consuming and tedious at times; however, taking the time to find that common ground is critical to combating child pornography.