The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) is a section of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice in charge of enforcing federal criminal statutes relating to the exploitation of children and obscenity. Created in 1987, the section comprises approximately 15 attorneys who prosecute defendants who have violated federal child exploitation and obscenity laws and also assist the 93 United States Attorney Offices in investigations, trials, and appeals related to these offenses.
CEOS also has a number of Computer Forensic Specialist (CFS) within the High Technology Investigative Unit (HTIU) and, under the direction of a CEOS manager, they conduct online investigations and analysis of Internet technologies used to distribute obscene materials and child pornography.
Under the G. W. Bush Administration, this section was more active in pursuing adult obscenity than it is presently, and engaged in a number of unsuccessful prosecutions. It was successful in obtaining a conviction of director Max Hardcore in 2007 and Ira Isaacs in 2012.
Famous quotes containing the words child, exploitation, obscenity and/or section:
“A child of three cannot raise its chubby fist to its mouth to remove a piece of carpet which it is through eating, without being made the subject of a psychological seminar of child-welfare experts, and written up, along with five hundred other children of three who have put their hands to their mouths for the same reason.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is exploitation of the strong by the weak.”
—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865)
“Since obscenity is the truth of our passion today, it is the only stuff of art—or almost the only stuff.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Personally I think we’re over-specialized. Why it’s getting so we have experts who concentrate only on the lower section of a specimen’s left ear.”
—Martin Berkeley, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Clete Ferguson (John Agar)