Child pornography

Child pornography (also called child sexual abuse material or child porn) is pornography that exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a child. Child pornography is illegal and censored in most jurisdictions in the world. In the 2000s, use of the term child abuse images increased by both scholars and law enforcement personnel because the term "pornography" can carry the inaccurate implication of consent and create distance from the abusive nature of the material.

Quotes

The goal of the state is to find some practice that is universally reviled and pose as the one and only way of expunging it from society. The best example today is child pornography, a grim and ghastly industry that every decent person would like to see eradicated from the earth. But in the name of doing so, the state invades everyone's privacy, controls speech, interferes with families, and otherwise uses the issue as a wedge to eliminate every freedom. ~ Lew Rockwell

• Like the jury and the district court, we have been forced to view the images in this case in order to determine the issues raised--a decidedly distasteful and depressing duty.
  • 267 F3d 839, United States of America Cross v. Lonnie Joseph Parker filed (October 9, 2001).

• Every day of my life I live in constant fear that someone will see my pictures and recognize me and that I will be humiliated all over again. It hurts me to know someone is looking at them -- at me -- when I was just a little girl being abused for the camera. I did not choose to be there, but now I am there forever in pictures that people are using to do sick things. I want it all erased. I want it all stopped. But I am powerless to stop it just like I was powerless to stop my uncle...I am horrified by the thought that other children will probably be abused because of my pictures. Will someone show my pictures to other kids, like my uncle did to me, then tell them what to do? Will they see me and think it's okay for them to do the same thing? Will some sick person see my picture and then get the idea to do the same thing to another little girl?
  • Amy, "Document: Victim impact statement of girl in Misty Series", The Virginian Pilot, (Oct 25, 2009).

• We're agreed that child sexual imagery is a case apart, it's illegal everywhere in the world, there's a consensus on that. It's absolutely right that we identify this stuff, we remove it and we report it to the authorities.
  • Peter Barron, one of Google's Communications, quoted on BBC News, "Google and Microsoft agree steps to block abuse images", (November 18, 2013).

• If you make virtual child pornography under strict government control with some kind of label explaining that no child was abused, you can give pedophiles a way of regulating their sexual urges.
• I think that repressing your fantasies can lead to frustration and, ultimately, for some types of paedophile, to a greater likelihood of doing something wrong.
  • Erik Van Beek "‘Virtual’ Child Pornography ‘Could Quell Paedophiles’ Sexual Urges’, Claim Dutch Sex Therapists", Huffington Post, (20 November 2012).

• "Chaku Ero", which means "erotically clothed" is a kind of soft porn - it doesn’t involve nudity, but it can get very, very close and is often overtly sexual.
  Stacey asks a Chaku Ero producer (who wanted to remain anonymous) how young the girls in his shoots are.
  “My youngest was six years old,” he says. “We filmed her in her bathing costume playing with some toys. Her mum was standing behind the camera holding her favourite toy so she would face the camera.”
  He makes much more money filming children than older girls. The DVD of the six-year-old made him “four million (£28,500) or five million yen (£35,500),” he says. “The senior high school girls will make about one million (£7000)”.
• As long as Chaku Ero photos don’t show the child’s naked genitals, buttocks or chest, it isn’t categorised as child pornography.
  But, according to Kazuko Ito, a Human Rights Lawyer who is trying to challenge this definition, “Chaku Ero is child pornography. That’s the reality.”
  • Stacey Dooley, "Is Japan turning a blind eye to paedophilia?", BBC, (7 March 2018).

• My name is sweetie, I'm 10 years old. I live in the Philippines. Every day I have to sit in front of the webcam and talk to men. Just like tens of thousands of other kids. The men ask me to take off my cloths [sic]. They undress. They play with themselves, they want me to play with myself. As soon as I go online, they come to me. Ten, hundred, every hour. So many. But what they don't know: I'm not real.
  • Terre des Hommes, Sweetie.

• An indecent image of a child is just a picture of a rape in progress. And they look so real, that it’s difficult to tell the difference between real and a computer generated image.
  • Elena Martellozzo "‘Virtual’ Child Pornography ‘Could Quell Paedophiles’ Sexual Urges’, Claim Dutch Sex Therapists", Huffington Post, (20 November 2012).

• The goal of the state is to find some practice that is universally reviled and pose as the one and only way of expunging it from society. The best example today is child pornography, a grim and ghastly industry that every decent person would like to see eradicated from the earth. But in the name of doing so, the state invades everyone's privacy, controls speech, interferes with families, and otherwise uses the issue as a wedge to eliminate every freedom.
  • Lew Rockwell. But What About the Children?, Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., (04/30/2008).

• Children who willingly participate in sexual acts have the right to make that decision as well, even if it's distasteful to us personally. Some children will make poor choices just as some adults do in smoking and drinking to excess; this is part of life. When we outlaw child pornography, the prices paid for child performers rise, increasing the incentives for parents to use children against their will.
  • Mary Ruwart, Short answers to the tough questions, ISBN 978-0963233653, 1998. As quoted at Can the Libertarians Go Mainstream?

• Child pornography is great. Politicians do not understand file sharing, but they understand child pornography, and they want to filter that to score points with the public. Once we get them to filter child pornography, we can get them to extend the block to file sharing.
  We must filter the Internet to win over online file sharing. But politicians don’t understand that file sharing is bad, and this is a problem for us. Therefore, we must associate file sharing with child pornography. Because that’s something the politicians understand, and something they want to filter off the Internet.
  • Johan Schlüter "The Copyright Lobby Absolutely Loves Child Pornography" Rick Falvinge, Torrent Freak, (July 9, 2011).

• There is no evidence that demonstrates a significant increase in the danger to children caused by pornography. A person who is prone to act on his fantasies will likely do so irrespective of the availability of pornography.
  • Justice Duncan Shaw, Top B.C. court strikes down child-porn law, Francine Dube, The National Post, (January 16, 1999).

• Christopher DeVries, who organized a protest in support of Black Lives Matter and defunding the police, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of possession of child pornography. DeVries received a minimum of a three to six-year prison sentence, which started on December 27th, a $4,000 fine, and must register as a sex offender and comply with probation. DeVries could be incarcerated for as long as 15 years, with one year potentially being washed from the sentence if he completes sex offender treatment.
  • Natalie Winters, BLM Organizer Convicted on 20 Counts of Possessing Child Porn, Mass Central, 16 February 2022

See also

• Children
• Crime
• Decadence
• Ethics
• Law
• Mental health
• Pedophilia
• Psychosis
• Rule of law
• Sexuality
• Lolicon