Woman seeking to film adult video falls victim to fraud and sexual assault
[Tip]A woman, while working at a leisure club, overheard a man talking on the phone about making a film and sought to make quick money through film production, only to end up losing both her money and dignity. Recently, the Longgang District People's Court approved the arrest of suspect Chen Qingqing on charges of fraud.
[Case]According to the Longgang Court, on September 3, 2014, the victim Xiao Tang (pseudonym) met a man named Chen Mouqing, who used the alias “Chen Jiajun,” while working at the Bantian Fujishan Leisure Club. Chen Mouqing pretended to discuss filming a movie during a phone call with a friend and told Xiao Tang that he was looking for people to shoot an adult film, claiming the pay would be 260,000 yuan after filming. Upon hearing this, Xiao Tang immediately expressed interest in participating. Chen Mouqing said he needed to find a few more people, so Xiao Tang then informed Xiao Yan (pseudonym), who also agreed. On September 4, Chen Mouqing contacted Xiao Tang and said he needed to take nude photos of them to send to his friend to see if they were suitable. Xiao Tang and Xiao Yan went to Huacheng Hotel on Bantian Street, where Chen Mouqing took their nude photos. Afterward, Chen Mouqing said the photos were acceptable but that a deposit of 10,000 yuan was required. Xiao Tang and Xiao Yan disagreed, so Chen Mouqing then asked them to each pay 5,000 yuan. Xiao Tang also informed the victims Xiao Chen and Xiao Wang of the situation, and they too agreed to shoot a softcore film.
On September 14, Xiao Chen and Xiao Wang also went to Huacheng Hotel on Bantian Street, where Chen Mouqing took nude photos of them and each paid a 6,000 yuan deposit. Subsequently, while chatting, Xiao Tang and others found too many suspicious points about Chen Mouqing, sensed something was wrong, and called the police. After receiving the report, police officers arrested Chen Mouqing on September 18 at Huacheng Hotel on Bantian Street in Longgang District.
[1] 【Legal Perspective】Legal Reflections on Pornography
Since April 17, 1985, when the State Council issued the Provisions of the State Council on Strictly Prohibiting Obscene Materials, which for the first time uniformly stipulated the scope and standards for banning obscene materials and set out the management system and division of responsibilities for prohibiting such materials, China has been combating obscenity and pornography for more than 20 years. The latest amendment to the Criminal Law also provides an interpretation that extends the application of obscene materials to cyberspace, prohibiting “the establishment of obscene websites or web pages on the Internet, the provision of link services to obscene sites, or the dissemination of obscene books, periodicals, films, audio-visual materials, or pictures.” If the number of reposts reaches a certain threshold, it may also constitute the crime of disseminating obscene materials. In addition, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate have also adopted an expanded interpretation of “other obscene materials” as stipulated in the Criminal Law. Meanwhile, Article 69 of the Public Security Administration Punishments Law provides: “Whoever commits any of the following acts shall be detained for not less than 10 days but not more than 15 days and shall also be fined not less than 500 yuan but not more than 1,000 yuan: (1) organizing the showing of obscene audio-visual materials; (2) organizing or giving obscene performances; or (3) participating in group licentious activities.”
However, the above laws regulate obscene materials only in terms of "dissemination and distribution," with no strict provisions on privately filming or possessing pornography. In China, under the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, "browsing" or "viewing" obscene materials does not constitute a violation. Whether "downloading" pornographic works is illegal remains ambiguous, but apart from controversial fines imposed by police in a few localities, it is largely unenforced. Coupled with the fact that "piracy" regulation exists only on paper, possessing pornographic works on Chinese people's computers and hard drives is a fairly common phenomenon.
However, filming pornographic videos or photos in public places violates the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, and under its provisions, a detention of five to ten days may be imposed. Article 44 of the Public Security Administration Punishments Law stipulates: whoever molests another person, or intentionally exposes their body in a public place with vile circumstances, shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than ten days; whoever molests a person with intellectual disabilities, a mentally ill person, a person under the age of fourteen, or commits other serious circumstances shall be detained for not less than ten days but not more than fifteen days. If pornographic footage is privately filmed but uploaded to the internet by another person without consent (such as in cases similar to the Edison Chen photo scandal), the disseminator is also suspected of infringing the woman’s right to privacy.
Therefore, in our country, mere private possession of pornographic material, as long as it is not disseminated or shared in any form, does not constitute a criminal offense. In Western countries, however, possession of extreme pornography is itself a criminal offense. Although the definition of extreme pornography varies from country to country, there is one universal red line: possession of child pornography. In the United States, for example, even possessing just a few child pornography images can result in a sentence of 3—7 years upon discovery.
