Grad baby pic placard reported as child porn

A sign featuring a naked baby picture of a graduating Swedish student has been reported to police as child pornography by an offended bystander.

Although it is common for students to be supplied with embarrassing baby picture placards on their graduation day, a 48 year-old man in Landsskrona, southern Sweden, complained to police that one family had taken it too far.

The offending picture apparently featured a naked three-year-old boy in a pool with his legs akimbo. “He (the graduate in question) had in his possession a sign that showed a child in a pornographic position,” the police report said, according to local newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad.

Lars-Olof Cederlund, of the Landsskrona police information department, said there will not be an investigation into the matter as it is only hearsay, and they so far have no idea who the youth in question was. “If a prosecutor feels the need to for us to look into this they only have to report it again,” he told Expressen.

As is tradition in Sweden, parents usually pick out the most embarrassing photograph possible well in advance of their children’s graduation. On the day the students receive their report cards, they are then driven around in the back of birch-leaf bedecked trucks, brandishing their home-made signs with a mixture of shame and pride.

Cederlund was quick to point out that a large number of Swedes could be in trouble if making placards with naked baby pictures becomes a crime. “There are many differing opinions on what could cause offence. I have four kids myself who have graduated from high school and on one of the signs we had a naked picture of my daughter when she was two or three years old,” he explained.

Hans Akesson, the local prosecutor, said cases such as these increasingly thrown up questions in recent years since laws on child porn were tightened. “Nowadays, the law says that someone who owns or is looking at an image of child pornography that he or she has gained possession of can be sentenced for up to two years in prison. I can’t say if the person who showed that specific picture falls under the definition ‘gained possession of’. I suppose an assessment would have to be made,” he said to Helsingborgs Dagblad.