Newsweek: Could Gold Medal Gymnast McKayla Maroney Face Child Pornography Charges?

Newsweek: Could Gold Medal Gymnast McKayla Maroney Face Child Pornography Charges?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: it is theoretically possible, but (1) she is perceived as a victim; (2) she took pictures of herself but, so far as we know, did not transmit them or show them to anyone; (3) people who have studied the EXIF data on her nude photos have noted that she was actually 18 when they were taken, so the entire point is moot.

Was she really 17, or 18? Well, we know that she has lied once about the pictures by saying they were fakes, so there's no reason to trust her word now. "Underage" is the trump card, so she and her lawyers (wisely) played it, but that doesn't make it true. Websites will remove the pictures and men will scrub their hard discs because they don't want to risk the possibility that she really was underage, even if it seems like an obviously false claim being used as a tactic.