Reply #121: I'm not sure most people can even have a rational discussion of this

[booley]

In my experience, you say child porn and people's brains turn off. They already have an idea of what "child porn" is but frequently it doesn't match what the law views as child porn. And I am thinking they don't care. Any attempt at disabusing their notions is seen as defending exploitation of children.

I mean, an adult having sex with a four year old? yeah, there's not a lot of ambivalency there.

But what about those old or foreign skin rags where the age of consent was different?

What about artwork where children are posed nude?

What about a family photos of kids in the bathTub?

What about sexy pics passed only between a boyfriend and girlfriend, both of whom are underaged?

What about the new tactic of the FBI to send out spam and if you hit the link, they now have probably cause to arrest you for "child porn"?

What about teenagers? Do they still count as children and why should they suddenly not count when the moment they reach a certain age?

And what about the discussion of the subject? What about literature where there is sex between adults and children? Should even writing about the idea be illegal?

All of these things have happened, people have been arrested. and when people find out you are a "sex offender" they typically don't bother to also find out the circumstances. They just assume you must have been having sex with toddlers. Any protest is seen as being in denial. Even if one isn't a registered sex offender, that just means you secretly are a child molester because like I said, criticism of child porn laws is seen as the same as defending raping small children.. It's a no win situation.

Complicating this is the fact that human sexuality is so varied and fluid. what is erotic to one person isn't to another. Actual pedophiles probably get off on diaper commercials. Should we then arrest the makers of Huggies as child pornographers?

And I should mention I have seen this same thing in other areas of debate such as immigration, guns and hugo chavez. I guess it's just human nature. I do wish there was a way around it. but you can't force someone to think.

Oh but as to the question in the OP, first law enforcement should be a bit analytical and establish that this is a pattern, not a mistake or one time thing.

But another thing we al should do is remember that punishing the consumer of an illegal product has never worked. Put a million people who have ever seen child porn in jail and you won't make a dent in child porn.