HRS 0707-0751 ANNOTATIONS

Reporting on child abuse, see chapter 350.

Promoting pornography, see §712-1214.

State v. Kam: The Constitutional Status of Obscenity in Hawaii. 11 UH L. Rev. 253.

The Jurisdictional Limits of Federal Criminal Child Pornography Law. 21 UH L. Rev. 73.

Act 214, Session Laws 1978, added these sections to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. Dealing with activities involving the participation of children without attempting to define the conduct in terms of pornography, these sections classify the offenses as offenses against the person rather than pornography. It is an offense for anyone to engage in the proscribed activities whether the material or performance involving a minor is pornographic or not. Senate Conference Committee Report No. 27-78, House Conference Committee Report No. 21.

Act 218, Session Laws 1982, amended these sections to clarify that the offense of promoting child abuse applies to the use of minors in pornographic material. Section 707-751 was found to be unconstitutional because "the statute prohibited speech protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution...and because the statute did not incorporate the three-part test defining obscenity as enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Miller v. California, the statute prohibited non-obscene as well as obscene materials." The constitutionality of the section is on appeal but the Legislature found "that any question as to what is being prohibited should be clarified." House Conference Committee Report No. 4, Senate Conference Committee Report No. 3.

Act 91, Session Laws 1988, amended §707-750 by reclassifying the offense of promoting child abuse in the first degree from a class B felony to a class A felony. The legislature found that victims of child abuse are the least able to defend themselves, and the resulting emotional scars of these victims increase the likelihood of further contact with the criminal justice system; therefore, a more severe punishment for this offense is warranted. The legislature also found that reclassifying this offense will make the classification consistent with the current penalty for sexual abuse in the first degree involving a minor. House Standing Committee Report No. 481-88, Senate Standing Committee Report No. 2545.

Act 363, Session Laws 1997, amended §§707-750 and 707-751 to include persons producing or making pornographic material involving minors under the offense of child abuse. The legislature found that under existing child abuse laws, in order for a person to be charged with child abuse, the pornographic materials must show a minor engaged in or assisting others to engage in a sexual act. This loophole in the law allowed persons producing those materials to exploit children by using them in sexually explicit poses without technically violating the law. The legislature believed that it was important to extend the scope of the offense of child abuse to include producing material in which children are exploited through sexually explicit conduct.

The Act also, inter alia, amended the definition of "sexual conduct" to include lascivious exhibition of the genital or pubic area of a minor, and added the definitions of "lascivious" and "community standards", in both §§707-750 and 707-751. Section 707-751 was also amended to include possession of pornographic material involving children as an offense. Senate Standing Committee Report No. 757, House Standing Committee Report No. 1214.

Act 200, Session Laws 2002, amended these sections by, among other things, defining "child pornography" to encompass computer-generated representations of minors. The legislature found that Act 200 addressed the problem of utilizing computer technology in committing crimes against children. House Standing Committee Report No. 417-02, Conference Committee Report No. 36-02.

Statute not unconstitutionally overbroad. 65 H. 116, 648 P.2d 190.

Due process. 81-1 HLR 810147.