Although child pornography is illegal in most every country in the world, it is becoming more readily available through the use of the internet. A image which depicts a sexual act involving a child under the age of 18, or which constitutes a “lewd and lascivious” display of the breasts, buttocks or genitalia of a child under the age of 18 is considered child pornography. The image must be that of an actual person, and not a computer generated image. Frequently, if the image of the child in question has not been previously identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), or other competent authority it is necessary for the law enforcement authorities to establish the estimated age of the child through use of the “Tanner Scale” which is utilized by a pediatrician who determines the estimated age of the child based upon body development.

Military law enforcement authorities frequently work in conjunction with federal and state agencies in child pornography investigations. There are several common tactics that are utilized to include “sting operations” where the authorities advertise pretext child pornography sites that are operated by the law enforcement agencies – when a person contacts that site via the internet, they are putting the authorities on notice that they are looking for child pornography. Frequently, the agency that is conducting the sting operation will ship pretext child pornography to the individual, waiting for him to pick it up at the post office at which time he will be arrested. Another frequently encountered situation is where the law enforcement agencies have identified a web site that supplies child pornography, and pursuant to a grand jury subpoena acquires records related to people who subscribe to the child porn site to back track to those people, thereafter acquiring a search warrant for that person’s financial records to secure evidence related to the purchase of child pornography. Many people are of the impression that if an image or file is “deleted” from the computer, that is not longer recoverable, when in reality, it is almost impossible to permanently erase a file or image from a computer’s hard drive. We frequently encounter cases in which thousands of “deleted” images have been recovered from the computer’s hard drive.