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Child pornography refers to pornographic material depicting children. It has been described as a form of child sexual abuse.

Relation to child abuse

The viewing or use of child pornography has been characterized as a victimless crime, the production of it often involves the abuse or exploitation of children, except when it is produced with simulated or computer generated images, a form which is still illegal in the United States but has been repeatedly challenged in court.

Children of all ages, including infants, are used to produce pornography internationally. Estimates of the number of children worldwide involved in child pornography range from thousands to hundreds of thousands. "While impossible to obtain accurate data, a perusal of the child pornography readily available on the international market indicates that a significant number of children are being sexually exploited through this medium."

Substantiated cases of child sexual abuse in the US declined dramatically in number between 1992 and (at least) 1998. A substantial decline also appears to have occurred in Australia. In contrast, the United Kingdom Children's charity NCH have stated that demand for child pornography on the Internet has led to an increase in sex abuse cases, though this conflicts with the Office for National Statistics's 2007 report on Child Protection Registers, which shows a decrease of approximately 27% in the number of sexually abused children between 2003 and 2007 on the register.

Whether artificially created erotic or pornographic material (e.g. lolicon, some pornographic dōjinshi, etc.) constitutes "child abuse" is disputed, as no actual children are necessarily involved in the production. The purported link between use of child pornography and child abuse has been used to justify the prohibition of sexual depictions of children, whether their production involves child abuse or not. This link is itself disputed: "Considerable controversy exists within the social and behavioral science community about the negative effects, if any, of child pornography upon the behavior of potential or actual offenders. ... Many researchers have come to the conclusion that there is no sound scientific basis for concluding that exposure to child pornography increases the likelihood of sexual abuse of children. Others have suggested that there is a consistent correlation between the use of pornography and sexual aggression." Sex therapist Petr Weiss and Canadian Justice Jeff Shaw, for instance, argued that child pornography use may decrease cases of child sexual abuse by allowing pedophiles to sublimate their desires.

A 2008 review of the use of Internet communication to lure children outlines the controversy and possible links to actual behaviour regarding the effects of Internet child pornography. One perspective is that exposure to child pornography stimulates and provokes criminal sexual intent that otherwise would not exist. Exposure to child pornography might heighten desire and motivation to act on urges by decreasing internal restraints. Anonymity (or belief that anonymity exists) may further loosen the internal restraints, such that the individual "practices" molestation in the imagination, facilitated by still or moving images, which makes actual criminal sexual behaviour with children more probable if the person was already sexually motivated toward children, or, by creating new sexual interests in children . The review article states that these are plausible hypotheses, but that there is a lack of clarity as to the general applicability of these mechanisms. There is not any current data that use of child pornography on the Internet either decreases or increases the incidence of actual offending: they note that similar theories have been developed in the past about pornography in general.

Internet proliferation

The Internet has radically changed how child pornography is reproduced and disseminated, and, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, resulted in an increase in the "availability, accessibility, and volume of child pornography."

The NCMEC, who receive funding to pursue people who commit offences against children, have stated that child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry and among the fastest growing business segments on the internet. Digital cameras and internet distribution facilitated by the use of credit cards and the ease of transferring images across national borders has made it easier than ever before for users of child pornography to obtain the photographs and videos. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimated in 2003 that 20% of all pornography traded over the internet was child pornography, and that since 1997 the number of child pornography images available on the internet had increased by 1500%.

Responses

International

The USA Department of Justice coordinates programs to track and prosecute child pornography offenders across all jurusdictions, from local police departments to federal investigations, and international cooperation with other governments.

United Nations

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ("UNCRC"), which has been ratified by an overwhelming majority of the nations of the world, identifies child pornography as a violation against children and requires that nations who are parties to the convention take measures to prevent the exploitative use of children in pornographic materials. Where child pornography involves depictions of children engaging in sexual conduct, the production of this material is prohibited legally in UN member countries.

In Canada

Canadian law forbids the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography. Prohibition covers the visual representations of sexual activity by minors (although prosecutions in cases where all involved are over 14 are rare) and the depiction of their sexual organ/anal region for a sexual purpose, unless an artistic, educational, scientific, or medical justification can be provided. It also includes the written depictions of children engaging in sexual activity.

Law that addresses dynamic aspects of the Internet by regulating the nature of live-time chatting and email communications that may relate to enticing children for pornographic (e.g., web cam) or other sexual purposes has passed in 2002. It also criminalizes the intentional access of child pornography.

In the Philippines

On September 15, 2007, the Children and Youth Secretariat of the Anti-Child Pornography Alliance (ACPA-Pilipinas) in the Philippines launched Batingaw Network "to protect and save children from all forms of abuses and exploitations." It is the largest anti-child pornography movement in the Philippines to date. It declared September 28 as the "National Day of Awareness and Unity against Child Pornography.

See also

• Anti-pornography movement
• Child modeling (erotic)
• Child prostitution
• Child sexual abuse
• Indecent pseudo-photograph of a child
• Internet pornography
• Lolicon
• Nudity and children
• Pedophilia
• Pornography addiction
• State v. Dalton - on textual child pornography
• New York v. Ferber
• Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition

References

1. Hobbs, Christopher James (1999). Child Abuse and Neglect: A Clinician's Handbook. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 328. ISBN 0443058962. Child pornography is part of the violent continuum of child sexual abuse {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
2. Anger at child porn sentence BBC News | 29 May 2001 (Retrieved 29 May 2007)
3. Battle Over Simulated Child Porn, CNET News.com, Courtney Macavinta, August 8, 1997
4. Child Pornography, Adultweblaw.com
5. ^ Child pornography: an international perspective, United Stated Embassy Stockholm, Margaret A. Healty, Computer Crime Research Center website, August 2, 2004
6. Jones, L., and Finkelhor, D. (2001). The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases. Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
7. Dunne, Purdie, Cook, Boyle, & Najman (2003). "Is Child Sexual Abuse Declining? Evidence from a Population-Based Survey of Men and Women in Australia," Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal, 27(2):141-52
8. "Internet porn 'increasing child abuse'". Guardian Unlimited (in English). Guardian News and Media Limited. 2004-01-12. Retrieved 2007-06-01. Demand for child pornography on the internet has led to an increase in sex abuse cases,{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
9. DCSF: Referrals, Assessments and Children and Young People who are the subject of a Child Protection Plan or are on Child Protection Registers, England - Year ending 31 March 2007
10. Government of Canada (1984). Report of the Committee on Sexual Offenses against Children and Youth, Vols. 1-11, and summary. Government of Canada, Department of Supply and Service as "Badgely Report; Cat. No. J2-50/1984/E, Vols. 1-11, H74-13/1984-1E, Summary".
11. [http://www.csecworldcongress.org/PDF/en/Stockholm/Background_reading/Theme_papers/Theme%20paper%20Pornography%201996_EN.pdf Child Pornography: An International Perspective, p. 8.
12. Child porn consumers safe from prosecution in the Czech Republic
13. Child-porn law is struck down by B.C. judge
14. ^ Wolak, James (2008). "Online "Predators" and Their Victims" (PDF). American Psychologist. pp. 111–128. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.63.2.111. Retrieved 2008-03-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
15. Child Pornography, Child Exploitation and Obscenity, Department of Justice
16. ^ "CHILD PORN AMONG FASTEST GROWING INTERNET BUSINESSES". National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, USA. 2005-08-05. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
17. ^ "Defining Child Pornography: Law Enforcement Dilemmas in Investigations of Internet Child Pornography Possession" (PDF). Police Practice and Research. 07-2007. pp. 269–282. doi:10.1080/15614260701450765. Retrieved 2008-03-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
18. Bantekas, Ilias (2003). International Criminal Law 2/E. Routledge Cavendish. pp. p91. ISBN 1859417760. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
19. http://www.efc.ca/pages/law/cc/cc.163.1.html Criminal Code of Canada, section 163ff, accessed 2008-01-10
20. "STRONGER CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LAWS RECEIVE ROYAL ASSENT". Government of Canada. 2002-06-10. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
21. "BILL C-15A: AN ACT TO AMEND THE CRIMINAL CODE AND TO AMEND OTHER ACTS". The Parliament of Canada. 2002-09-30. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
22. Abs-Cbn Interactive, Batingaw vs child porn launched

External links

• U.S. Dept. of Justice (2008-01-18). "Child Pornography on the internet" (PDF).
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "Child Pornography Fact Sheet".
• Library on child pornography and related topics
• Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada (2007-07-19). "Sexual Exploitation of Children". Retrieved 2008-03-08. The most frequently investigated SEOC offences by Canadian law enforcement relate to on-line child exploitation, particularly the possession of child pornography distributed via the Internet.
• "ECPAT (End Child Prostitition Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes)". Retrieved 1008-03-14. there are over 80 groups in more than 70 countries {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

• Child pornography