The lawyer of Spencer Elden, 30 – who was photographed naked as a baby for the cover of Nivarna's iconic "Nevermind" album cover and is suing the surviving members of the band – recently clashed with famous CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
Elden alleges that due to being a four-month-old baby at the time, he wasn't able to give his consent to be photographed, and claims that the image amounts to child sexual exploitation.
"The focal point of the image is the minor's genitalia. And here in that image along with all of the other dose factors as we pled in our complaint, it is a very over-sexualised image, and does constitute child pornography," Elden’s lawyer Maggie Mabie told Cuomo. "More importantly, it was child exploitation in the way that they created it, and the way that they continue to distribute the image today."
Cuomo, however, argued in response that he doesn't exactly remember anyone "ever writing or anything being out there in society" about the image in question – which features the naked Elden swimming underwater next to a dollar bill on a fishing hook – "as a sexualised or pornographic."
"I always thought that it was a suggestion of how right out of the womb, people are just grabbing for money and doing anything they can. I thought it was more about capitalism than it was sexuality," he remarked, asking Mabie why she's so sure of her position, and why Elden is "bringing it now, after all these years of seeming to be okay with it."
Arguing in response that the image does indeed constitute child pornography, Mabie further explained that Elden’s decision to bring up the issue now likely stems from the fact that he may soon face a "very large invasion of his privacy again" due to the imminent 30th anniversary of the album, which was released in September 1991.
"He's saying that he doesn’t want his genitalia out there for the world to consume any longer, and if we have this image redacted, that will be a monumental signal for all victims of child pornography that their voices are being heard and their privacy is being respected," she added.