Yeah, in this case, they are. I was responding to a question about written description of child abuse. In thos case, since no image of ‘real children’ involved, IIRC, they are protected by the 1st.
Prosecutors said yesterday that they had identified at least 30 child pornography victims shown in the images and videos Rust-Tierney downloaded and that the images were created in places ranging from England and Texas to Scranton, Pa. Rust-Tierney used his credit card to purchase the images from child pornography Web sites on at least five occasions, spending about $420.
At one point, court documents said, Rust-Tierney e-mailed the operators of a Web site requesting free access to a child pornography video normally sold separately for $100. The Web site operators e-mailed back with a link to the video.
Rust-Tierney’s plea agreement with prosecutors said the images he downloaded showed “sadistic or masochistic conduct.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060101882.html