When it comes to issues of children's rights there is no debate as to the fact that children should not be abused either physically or sexually. Therefore when the debates do arise, they are mostly on the fact that we seem to be doing little as an international community to stop the continuous and often blatant human rights violations against children. Other debates rage on in regards to funding, legislation, and other related issues which seem to sit more at a political level than a human level.
The issue of child porn is a sensitive one, for its victims are never allowed to escape their abusers, as their abuse continues indefinitely, once circulated. While the persecution of pedophiles and the efforts of law enforcement have increased, so has the difficulty to catch these offenders and find their innocent victims.
However it is not these obvious and blatant abuses that I want to talk about today, it is a new kind of victim…a virtual victim! In our ever growing technological age abusers are continuing to grow more and more savvy about hiding their identities and and avoiding the law and persecution. But what do we do when the victim in a case of child porn is not a living breathing child, but a virtual child?
What is Virtual Child Porn?
It is pornographic material that appears to depict children, but doesn't use real children. The use of the term “virtual,” with its connotations of “virtual reality”, makes some think that virtual child porn must involve the use of the Internet, however it doesn't have to.
The types of virtual child porn:
1. Composites: The “models” in these virtual images appear underage, and are presented as such in the surrounding text, advertisements, etc. However, these “models” don't really exist: they were “assembled” from perfectly legal photographs using an editing program such as Photoshop, and perhaps using the face of a child on the body of a underdeveloped adult. Therefore, the creation of this kind of pornography didn't actually involve children. However it can be argued that it promotes child abuse, or does involve a child if a ‘real’ child's face is used or if one believes that it is that ‘real’ child's body.
2. Pictures of people who look underage with surrounding text claiming them as underage, but who are actually legal. Thus the pornographer has used an 18-year-old who looks 15 or 13 for example.
*In a recent United States Supreme Court decision (Ashcroft vs. The Free Speech Coalition), the Supremes held that these two forms of pornography were protected by the First Amendment.
Here are my non-researched, non-academic thoughts and fears on the idea of ‘virtual child porn’:
I wonder if the idea of ‘virtual porn’ is just a ticking time bomb to bigger things. To me it is like giving a person a teaser, a taste of something naughty, which only has them wanting more…wanting the real thing. My analogical comparison is to cake: it's there all the time and with easy access, but you don't want to eat cake all the time. However when you walk by a bakery and you smell cake, you suddenly want cake. You’re having dinner and someone orders cake, they offer you a bite, you eat it, and then you are not satisfied by a bite and you want a whole piece. You know you have cake down stairs just waiting there, so you want it, and you eat a piece and then think “well why not? I will just finish it!”. All the while you know that cake is bad for you, but it's just there tempting you, so your inherent cravings get the best of you. However if there is no cake in site you don't think much about it, nor do you continually crave it.
As they say, “The only way to kill a monster is to starve it!”
Therefore I wonder if by giving people the opportunity to experiment with the idea of child porn, are we allowing them an opportunity to increase their craving for the real thing. I am slightly divided personally on the legalization issue, for two main reasons; One, as it is hard enough to catch a person who is in possession of ‘real’ child porn, and spending resources on ‘virtual predators’ may not be the best use of already strained resources. Secondly, I know there are a lot of people with ‘bad thoughts’ or desires that have managed to avoid the temptation: people who have had the urge to kill but did not act on it, yet maybe if some one had handed them a gun they would have. However there is a flip side to this argument, and that is the argument that the use of ‘virtual porn’ keeps pedophiles and would-be pedophiles away from children, by giving them an outlet for their “sickness”. While it is surely a subject that could use more research and debate, I am not a scientist, but I do know that sex or thoughts of sex with a child are wrong, regardless of if ‘virtual child porn’ is legal or illegal.
Please share your thoughts on this subject, I look forward to hearing your view points.
Related Papers and Articles mostly on the Legal Aspects of ‘Virtual Child Porn’:
Virtual Child Porn Riles Law Enforcement 2007
Dutch demand ban of virtual child porn in Second Life 2007
2002 Supreme Court strikes down ban on ‘virtual child porn’
Does Virtual Child Porn Equal Child Exploitation? 2002
“VIRTUAL CHILD” PORNOGRAPHY ON THE INTERNET: A “VIRTUAL” VICTIM?
Virtual Child Pornography – a paper for the legalization
Virtual Child Pornography – An overview written by a First Amendment Scholar
Japanese Poll on Manga Child Porn Regulation 2007
Web a playground for child porn
