ABSTRACT
In New York v. Ferber, 458 US 747, the US Supreme Court held that a state could prohibit the dissemination of material showing children engaged in sexual conduct, regardless of whether the material was obscene, without violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The case involved a bookstore owner who had been convicted under a New York child pornography statute of promoting the sexual performance of a child under the age of sixteen. Since Miller was inapplicable, Justice White crafted a four-part child pornography test: adequate definition of the offensive sexual conduct, visual depiction, the minority of the subject, and the knowledge of the defendant. Ferber later was extended to even the private possession of child pornography with the Court's decision in Osborne v. Ohio, 495 US 103. All other obscene sexual representations of children in books, magazines, pamphlets, and oral recordings are governed by Miller v. California.
