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Over the weekend ... or at least the weekend our time ... a story began to break on adult webmaster forums about the arrest in Florida of two people who were part of the staff of a well-known paysite.

The charge relates to the filming of a minor who, despite producing suitable identification that "proved" that she was at least 18, was in fact only 17 at the time of a hardcore shoot and the evidence from the prosecution seems to claim that the two people arrested knew that the girl's identification was a fake.

The two people who were arrested were the cameraman for the paysite and the paysite's webmaster and both guys were present at the time the girl was performing.

It seems that the arrest took place at least a few days ago and the people in question have now been bailed to appear at some time in the future. It also seems that the person who owns the paysite, and who employed the two people who were arrested, is currently overseas.

What's very interesting here is that some adult webmasters in Florida are sure that this story first appeared on Craig's List almost 12 months ago but the authorities chose to do nothing about it at that time. Instead they've gone about quietly building a case till now they're sure that they'll get a conviction.

Others who claim to have relatives who work in law-enforcement in Florida suggest that the police now have files on just about every adult producer in that state and eventually they will start to take action under various laws including the prostitution laws.

Legally, for this industry, there's always been a fine line between what's prostitution and what's an adult performance for the camera and the reality is that California is the only state where there is a legal distinction between being a porn star and a prostitute. That means that you're safe shooting content in California but not anywhere else ... but people still go ahead and do it in other places.

They do it in places like Florida where the laws are tough and juries are prepared to listen to the prosecution and find people guilty. They do it in places like Florida where content shooters ... webmasters and paysite owners have already faced court and gone to prison for years. And now we're going to see a number of people face court in Florida for not only shooting porn but doing it with a minor.

There's no doubt that some people may seem really smart and successful but yet they do the dumbest things and shooting porn in Florida with a minor has to be right up there at the pinnacle of dumb things to do.

But not only are they putting themselves in jeopardy but they're also putting their affiliates in danger of prosecution too. Down at this end of the marketing and content chain we have to rely on the people who provide us with the webmaster content, the free hosted galleries and the free video clips to do the right thing because if they don't then we suffer too.

And don't for a moment think that I'm talking about lost revenue here ... I'm talking about our freedom. Anyone who was an affiliate of the paysite who shot this girl and who posted any free content or free hosted galleries that included this underage model is open to prosecution just the same as the guys who shot the stuff.

Do you feel like spending time in prison for a stupid act that someone else committed?

I sure don't and that's one of the reasons I've never been comfortable in promoting the teen niche. You just never know what shortcuts your sponsor might be taking to get some great video or images up on their paysite. And these days ... when times are tough ... you can almost guarantee that some teen sponsors are going to be taking shortcuts and shooting whoever is prepared to work for the lowest dollar.

Now I'm not saying that, just because I'm uncomfortable with the teen niche, you should avoid it as I do. What I am saying though is that you really do need to be careful about which teen sponsors you work with. While not every small teen sponsor is going to want to take risks that's where the problems are most likely to arise because there are some cowboys in this industry and they're usually found at the small end of town.

If you want to push teen content then work with the big guys ... the sponsors who have been around for years ... the sponsors who have great reputations for looking after their affiliates. These are the sponsors who are more likely to take a whole lot more care over who they shoot and whether or not their ID is faked than the others.

These are the guys who have big reputations to protect and large income streams that they don't want to lose and they're the guys who take all the precautions so that they get it right ... and at the same time protect you.

Being an adult webmaster can be a dangerous job ... but only if you allow it to be.