Amazon's headache isn't over: MSNBC has identified nude photos and videos of children for sale on the site. The company hasn't yet discussed pulling The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure, and its author is being monitored by police.
Prodded by anti-child pornography activists, MSNBC writes,
Nudist videos from Eastern Europe appear on the U.S. Amazon retail site; meanwhile, books and videos that feature scantily clad pre-pubescent Eastern European and Asian girls, specifically stated by an independent website as being between the ages of 11 and 17, are listed on Amazon properties in Japan and elsewhere, and on Yahoo in Japan. That there are more books and videos of this nature on Amazon and other online retailers is highly likely.
It's not clear whether these items constitute child pornography, because as one lawyer tells MSNBC, child nudity alone does not necessarily meet the legal standard.
A broader Amazon decision-making framework hasn't been explained, though one may be forthcoming. The Los Angeles Times and others have pointed out that one similar book remains. Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers, which caused a pre-social media firestorm in 2002 at World Net Daily's instigation, remains on sale.
It's possible that Amazon has chosen to exercise a different standard over these books because no one has complained about them so prominently — at least, apparently not since 2002, aside from a few commenters. Or maybe because it's applying different rules to books published on its Kindle, or its self-publishing platform. In any case, we won't know until they say something. We contacted Amazon's press reps, but like everyone else, haven't heard anything.
Meanwhile, the AP reports that Pueblo, Colorado police visited Greaves, who is not a registered sex offender and has no criminal record, and are investigating him. Following threats to him on a "local website," they are monitoring his home.
Amazon.com Pulls One Pedophilia Book, But Not All [LAT]
Phillip Ray Greaves Being Investigated, Protected By Pueblo Police After Pedophile Book [AP]
Earlier: Amazon Removes Pedophilia Book, Isn't "Censoring"
Amazon Sells Guide To Pedophilia