McKayla Maroney: Nude Photos Could Make Her A Sex Offender Due To Child Porn Laws?

McKayla Maroney’s nude photos leaked out onto the internet makes for a weird legal conundrum based upon how the United States enforces laws related to child pornography. If Maroney were anyone else but a 2012 gold medalist it would even be possible to be labeled a sex offender based upon the bizarre way the laws work today.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, even Reddit groups have begun dropping the photos depicting McKayla Maroney naked based upon fears they could be chased down over child porn laws. But what one artist is taking an odd stand by using the leaked nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton in an art exhibit.

Obviously, the hacker(s) responsible for the 4Chan leaked nude photo collection would be charged with crimes, but Maroney herself may oddly find herself caught in the crossfire. As of this writing, Maroney has not had anyone suggest she be charged with distributing or creating child porn, but the laws in some states do allow for some odd loopholes. There have been cases in the past in both the United States and England where teenagers have been arrested and charged for taking and sharing nude selfies with friends. There’s even been cases where an underage boyfriend and girlfriend only shared the offending photos between themselves but when they later went public the two were charged as a sex offender.

According to CBS, Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot has prosecuted two sexting cases involving a total of 10 minors in the past year. In one particular case, several teens in a high school exchanged nude photos and videos of each other within the group. The end result was that each teen received a felony pornography charge, a penalty that Chenot felt was appropriate.

“Take a photograph of yourself or somebody else nude and send it to somebody else, you’ve committed the crime. That was the only charge that really fits what they were doing. What would have been the best thing to charge would be something that would have been a little less severe but would still draw these teenagers’ attention to the wrongness of their acts.”

Jumping across the pond, the Protection of Children Act would make criminals of the teens who create the nude selfies based upon the description of Inspector Martin Hillier of the Nottinghamshire Polcie.

“When photographs that fall within the category of an indecent image (even if taken with consent) are uploaded, reports are made by the administrators to the police. If a person is aged over 10 years and distributes (shares – even to friends) an indecent image then they can be arrested, charged and dealt with for this offence. If they are found guilty they must then register as a sex offender.”

So should McKayla Maroney’s nude photos have her facing similar criminal penalties? Regardless of how the world found out, the law is the law whether or not you are a celebrity or not, although we doubt Maroney would be very impressed with such an idea. But neither were the parents of the other teens who have been convicted in the past. They believe the law was inappropriately applied and hopefully the same attitude would prevail in the case of Maroney.

Of course, the crucial legal difference with McKayla Maroney’s nude photos is that she may have never actually distributed them herself. Instead, they were stolen, so why should the victim face the penalty of the criminal?