아동ㆍ청소년이 제작한 음란물에 관한 형사법적 검토

A Review on Self-Produced Child Pornography -In comparison with the cases of the United States-

With the rapid change in culture and the perception of sex in our society, and the routine access to social networking services made possible due to the internet and smartphones, we get to face the unexpected challenge of self-produced child pornography. This requires that we consider whether minors who have been assumed as object of protection and potential victims under the 『Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles against Sexual Abuse』 can turn voluntary offenders. In the United States, as minors' production, distribution and possession of pornographic materials such as sexting and self-produced pornographic videos became a social issue, there have been continuing debates on whether they should be punished under the law regarding child pornography. Meanwhile, reflections on the purpose of the law regarding child pornography and the basic direction of juvenile justice policies were followed. In several states, they worked on the additional legislation to distinguish self-produced child pornography from child pornography. In Korea a legal theory maintaining the reduction of idea of 'child pornography' and the recent opinion of the Supreme Court presenting justifications of illegality regarding this all show the attempts not to apply the act to the cases of self-production of child pornography. This happens because the statute currently imposes same strict legal penalties for all child pornography cases. In this article, therefore, it is thought to be required a series of legislative measures of classifying child pornography crimes into three types: production with coercion, production for profit and production for amusement or private collection. For the first two types legal penalties will need to be graded while the third type be decriminalized under the condition of offender's taking an educational program.