Singer Charged with Child Porn for Edited Video Showing Kids Listening to a Graphic Song
A singer and songwriter in Michigan is facing child pornography charges after posting a video he edited to make it appear that school kids were listening to him sing a song with graphic lyrics.
Evan Emory could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted of manufacturing and distributing child pornography for posting the video on YouTube and showing it in a nightclub, the New York Times reports. His aim was to produce a funny video. The charges have divided the community and people from as far away as Australia.
Emory did perform for first graders in Ravenna, Mich., but the actual tunes included “Lunchlady Land” and other songs he had permission to sing, the story says. He recorded the sexually explicit song after the children left for the day. A disclaimer said the kids hadn’t actually heard the song.
Emory told the Times in an interview that police came to his house, and seized his computer and iPhone. No child porn was found. “I just thought about how much I regretted this and how funny it wasn’t anymore,” he told the Times. He has since been suspended from his job as a waiter at Applebee’s. As a condition of his bail, he is barred from contact with children and music performances.
The Times says the case “underscores the still evolving nature of the law when it comes to defining child pornography in the age of Facebook, YouTube and sexting.”
