Well, believe it or not, some people think that just possessing (real) child porn isn't harmful to children, if the person isn't producing any.
Technically they're correct. However they probably paid for it somehow since it's not exactly floating around free, so they're contributing to the problem.
Actually it
is available for free.
Shudder. Some file-sharing networks are full of them.
The massive raids with international cooperation you hear about? Most of those are nowhere near the "organized dens of crime and exploitation" just a whole bunch of sick ****tards who molest (mostly their own! squick!) children and share their videos on the something Kazaa.
With a little technical know-how it's easy to monitor them and "busting such a massive ring of pedophiles - I mean dozens of members! it must be like a Maffia! (bull****)" looks really-really good on police officers' portfolio.
These men should be prosecuted because they cause the children harm. Though frankly usually not the physical variety most associate with the act. It's psychological 'cause they imprint the children with a very skewed view of sexuality where they must forever be the submissive and on the receiving end. However that's not all - they may view sex as a form of "love" and anyone tend believe that anyone who has sex with them is "loving them".... which may be true, but misses the whole point. Sex isn't about feeling it's act of body. What it expresses is up to the participants but these children's view is already skewed.
Two, no make it three things that piss me off about this whole deal:
1) The moral panic over pedophiles has actually put a lot of innocent people behind bars and modern witch trials were conducted with impossible charges. Read up on this here:
http://www.geocities.com/jgharris7/witchhunt.html2) The above moral panic and witch-hunt has actually retarded the cause of anti-molestation and child welfare. Most of these molestations and rape is done by relatives. The child services were finally on the right track and could do some real work... except over eager agents who saw molesters everywhere, fear struck parents and eager to please authorities (whose actions against pedophiles provides really good publicity) has gone into a insane fervor and destroyed this progress.
Now we're back to stranger-danger once again, the candyman you must beware of... which mostly bull****. Yes there are a few monsters out there, but very few. The sad truth is most child molestation is domestic, done by someone who the child trusts by people who may indeed be upstanding citizens in any other aspect and they indeed "love" the children...
...which most of the time doesn't "hurt" them, but harm the child in hidden and really sinister ways.
3) What makes the issue even more murky is that children aren't the "innocent angels" the media and American (blind) stereotypes make them out to be. Even as young as 8 they already have notions of sexuality and 12 years are guaranteed to have taken the first steps on sexuality - which is natural, they are teenagers by then! So instead "pure little angels" what really happens is really young curios teenagers are co-opted into a games of "pleasure".
The pressures that try to suppress sexuality in teenagers doesn't help this at all, especially the religious pressures that equate masturbation and sexuality with sin. Along comes a cool "uncle" who not only dismisses the child's fears, but actively encourages them to go on, release their pressures. He may even smuggle them some porno... or show them how it's done. The child naturally gravitates toward the sole figure who (seemingly) supports them.
When they finally figure out what's happening they don't know what to do. It wasn't a strange man who abducted them and did painful things to them, but a known person they trust who slowly brought them into a relationship that's growing ever more strained and uncomfortable for the child. He's out of his league he doesn't know how to get out or steer it in any direction.
Finally when things come to head everyone assumes that it hurt that they were practically "beat and literally abused". They could be. There are cases like that. Those are easier to solve (which is squicky). However in a lot of cases that child also enjoyed the sex to a degree. It offered them pleasure, but the relationship itself was very straining and put them under pressures that were ever mounting.
However everyone tells them it was WRONG! They must have SUFFERED! ...what if it wasn't painful and there were parts that they enjoyed? The stereotypes of child abuse afterwards cause a different strain on the child. Their actual experiences may differ wildly from the painful and sodomizing debauchery that everyone just "KNOWS MUST HAVE HAPPENED".... and speaks and handles them with the assumption.
Pedophiles often use the above argument to validate their "relationship". They are right to a degree: the children are rarely abused in the manner that the stereotypes assume. But the whole issue is still very damaging and the situation is fright with danger from the get go as the adults ego will inevitably leave a very strong impression on the child.
