Hard time could await people whose hard drives contain pornographic images of children.

Possessing child pornography usually is punished in North Carolina by community service. None of the 21 convictions in the 2006 fiscal year, for example, led to a prison sentence.

"You can get more time for a pocketful of crack than you can for a computer full of child rape movies," said Grier Weeks, director of the Asheville-based National Association to Protect Children.

But pornography users would be eligible for a prison term, typically up to six months, under a bill likely to become law within days...