What is 2257?

You may recall seeing the number 2257 at the bottom of many Internet porn sites. This number is a reference to a US federal record keeping law for those that display sexually explicit content. Specifically Title 18 USC Section 2257 which is a part of the United States criminal code. It imposes certain obligations on the producers of material containing depictions of actual sexually explicit conduct. It only applies to material made after November 1, 1990.

Why its Important

The purpose of the law is to require pornography companies to require and maintain copies of proper identification from its models showing they are of legal age to be photographed in sexually explicit photos. Since not doing so subjects the company to penalty of criminal prosecution and possible criminal sentence most web sites comply with this law and as such are required to post a notice regarding this on their web pages.

If a web site does not show this notice it does not mean the models in the photos and videos are necessarily underage as this is a US law and thus many web sites owned and operated outside of the US do not bother complying with it. Nevertheless, when you are dealing with the sensitive issue of photos of underage models it is important to error on the side of caution and avoid any site that does not provide such a notice. Otherwise you could end up with photos and videos on your computers hard drive of underage models subjecting yourself to potential prosecution and embarrassment.

Conclusion

The notice is usually towards the bottom of the warning page or tour page and should be on any page that contains sexually explicit photos or videos. Usually the notice is a link which leads to a page with a statement of compliance along with the address where the proper records are stored and made available for inspection by federal authorities. So make sure whatever site you are visiting contains such a notice. While the site itself may not have produced the content, they should still have a notice describing the source of the content and where the appropriate records are stored.