Child pornography case highlights outdated laws

A child pornography case in the US has highlighted the law's inability to deal with new issues posed by the digital age.

James Kent, a former professor at Marist College, New York, was convicted for possessing pornographic images of children in 2009, but this has now been overturned on appeal, Reuters reports.

The appeal centred on whether images stored in a computer's cache can be deemed as being in someone's possession.

Judge Carmen Ciparick thought not and said: "The defendant's conduct must exceed mere viewing to encompass more affirmative acts of control such as printing, downloading or saving."

Attorney Nathan Dershowitz, who represented Kent on appeal, said the case proves the difficulty with applying pre-digital laws to cases involving computers.

Earlier this year, the charity End Violence Against Women questioned the ability of the British justice system to deal with online behaviour after it was alleged that a rape victim had been named on Twitter.