Child Pornography, Essay Example

A judge in Vancouver, Canada says, “Views on child pornography may be as fleeting as views in the earlier stages of homosexuality”. (Matas 1). Madam Justice Mary Southin feels this change may be due to the legalization of the capacity to view and possess child pornography. (Matas 1). In Vancouver the courts have been diligently attempting to overturn the latest Court of Appeals decision to allow people to have in their possession child pornography but so far they have been unsuccessful. As it stands now in Vancouver to take away these rights to view and possess child pornography would certainly be an infringement of a person’s civil liberties according to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms instead of being a Criminal Code violation. Judges in Vancouver instead took the viewpoint that criminalizing carrying and possessing child pornography related material has not lowered the “restrictive exploitation of children in countries such as Brazil. Further Judge Southin pointed out that prohibition of alcohol in the United States has not contributed to lowering the drinking of minors but has actually made it worse.” (Matas What do you think about the views that the Canadian courts take with the issue of carrying child pornography? The United States takes a proactive legislative approach to child pornography being a crime and takes steps to eliminate such acts before they occur whereas other countries view the crime as an infringement of a person’s human rights. What do you think about this issue?

At present under United States Federal Law (18 U.S.C. §2256), child pornography is considered a felony crime where there is any “visual depiction, including film or photograph, video, picture, generated picture produced on the computer or other mechanical means of sexually explicit conduct where this production of visual depiction involves using a minor to engage in a sexually explicit act, a computer generated image where the minor is engaging in a sexually explicit act or the generated image is created to where an identifiable minor is participating in a sexually explicit act.” (“What is Child Pornography”)? In all 50 states it is illegal to distribute any kind of child pornography material.

Any child that is privy to viewing child pornography will be psychologically affected in such a way they will have trouble carrying a healthy and positive mental, emotional life plus have issues with relationships in their adult lives. Children become victims to sexual violence when they view child pornography at a young age because they feel it is alright for this sort of behavior to be present in their life, thus letting their emotional guards down or allowing their inner sense to become distorted. (Hughes 1998, 1). “According to one study, early exposure (under fourteen years of age) to pornography is related to greater involvement in deviant sexual practice, particularly rape. Slightly more than one-third of the child molesters and rapists in this study claimed to have at least occasionally been incited to commit an offense by exposure to pornography. Among the child molesters incited, the study reported that 53 percent of them deliberately used the stimuli of pornography as they prepared to offend.” (Marshall 267-88). “In a study of six hundred American males and females of junior high school age and above, researcher Dr. Jennings Bryant found that 91 percent of the males and 82 percent of the females admitted having been exposed to X-rated, hard-core pornography. Over 66 percent of the males and 40 percent of the females reported wanting to try out some of the sexual behaviors they had witnessed.” (Cline 1990, 11).

This rationale and these practices are totally in non-adherence to the personal values, love and integrity most parents’ strive to instill into their young children throughout adulthood. Parents educate their children from infancy by feeding them the right breast milk to reading them special stories and as they mature to toddler hood they help them to choose the healthy drink and food to eat. Viewing pornography and participating in child pornography is not conducive to what loving parents strive for their young children to participate in. Instead of young adults learning that sex is a tool to bring a child into the world and is an act of love between a man and wife, they learn callousness toward women in general, some view rape as a casual affair rather than a crime against the law or an invasion against a person’s rights, they lack the desire for monogamy and they begin to become sexual predators. Children’s mind are like sponges and are undergoing development stages and if exposed to child pornography “sexual deviance may become imprinted on a young child or young adult’s mind forever” totally changing their emotional and mental psyche for the worse. (Cline 1990, 11).

According to Sigmund Freud, the most dangerous of the development of the mind is the unconscious mind where our drives and instincts manifest themselves. The “id” consists of taking care of pleasure immediately. The “ego” unlike the “id” functions on a principle of reality and both struggle against each other. If in childhood or young adulthood we were to come to a part in life where we required a new “set of accompanying needs and wishes” (Boeree 2009) there would be a severe conflict with the “id” trying to satisfy social needs. We rationalize distorted thoughts and acts through the “ego” part of our personality. Freud believes everything stems from a ‘sex drive’. It is postured that the change is the social status of ‘sex’ is due to Freud’s works.

Child predators are constantly figuring out new ways to lure children to participate in child pornographic acts. They offer them money, drugs, a better life (in their eyes), or a quick fix to the problem the children are experiencing. Often children are victims of child pornography without even knowing they are victims and the easiest way for predators to accomplish this in recent studies is through internet and computer trafficking. Wired Kids, Inc. have devoted years of volunteer time to scouring the internet seeking out child pornography predators. The company became frustrated with the laws and complications and has since decided to put more effort into educating the children and the parents. Staca Uria, CEO for the company is frustrated and says the problem is consuming and getting larger (1). Unfortunately as technology develops on the internet, so does the technology for predators to progress their child pornography. Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, and South Dakota—have adopted legislatures for their IT to report “suspected child pornography” since IT is familiar with the “ins” and “outs” of computer technology, more so than the general public.

Child pornography is obviously a problem that manifests from technology and perpetrators that will stop at nothing to get their ‘filth’ spread to innocent and vulnerable minds. There is no possible way to weed out all of the predators but volunteer groups and the Federal Government agencies such as the FBI and CIA can continue to monitor such alleged acts through ‘probable cause’ as long as they do not infringe the rights of non-participating citizens. As always with any crimes to the minors, education commences at home and through the parents so that they are aware of the signs to look for if their children may be participating in such acts or whether their children are susceptible to such acts of vulnerability.

Works Cited

Matas, Peter. Attitudes Towards Child Porn Could Change, B.C. Judge Says. The Global Mall.27 April 1999.

“What is Child Pornography”? Exploited Children. 1984-2009.26 March 2010.

Hughes, Diana R. “How Pornography Harms Children”. Kids Online: Protecting your Children in Cyberspace. Revell 1988 September, 26 March 2010.

L. Marshall, “The Use of Sexually Explicit Stimuli by Rapists, Child Molesters, and Non-offenders,” The Journal of Sex Research 25, no.2 (May 1988): 267-88.

Victor B. Cline, Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children (New York: Morality in Media, 1990), 11.