The Oprah Forums discuss Child Pornography

The below is a post I have made on the Oprah forums in response to a discussion about Child Pornography after a show about Internet Predators. The show was actually about non-internet predators using the Internet to distribute their material ... this may be considered semantics, but misleading titles and accusations are not helping us fix what's really the problem. 45% of cases are committed within the home of family or friends, by a family member or friend ... guides are being distributed online teaching peadofiles how to molest children, broken down into age groups and specifically showing how not to get caught ... we need to take action and change the way we all live and respond to the oversexualization of children, both offline and online.

Hi Abikath5,
I can't help but be concerned by this post and the off track direction your research has taken when considering the initial topic of discussion. You mention the issue of children 10 - 17 having access to adult pornographic material ... while this is a major problem for society, its completely irrelevant to this subject and we have to be careful not to lose sight of the urgent issue at hand. Children are being molestered in their own homes by their parents and families - this is not an internet issue and has been a problem since long before the Internet existed. If anything, the Internet has given us a tool to find these people as shown by the technology on this show. Now that the bill has passed hopefully the law can catch up with the technology ...

Its very dangerous to continue to blame the existance of the Internet for every problem we have in society even though it has definately brought subjects to our attention that we'd probably rather stay ignorant about. Its assumed far too often that the existance of pornography at all is the reason why we have problems like child pornography - a religious view that dangerously covers up important facts. If the religious politicians had their way, adults wouldn't be able to have sex at all except for reproduction. Issues like child pornography are allowed to grow and prosper because governments spend their time arguing about the moral aspects of CONSENTING sex, and how we should police the population to meet the agenda's of the church.

So far, between America and Australia (my home) we have spent at least 500 million dollars that I am aware of in the past decade on trying to pass legislation to ban all pornographic material, under the premise that this will also stop child pornography. The absolute ignorance behind these attempts angers me. The waste of money angers me. The misinformation angers me. The lack of progress angers me. There are people out there like Flint Waters who have had this type of technology for several years, but they have been beating their heads against a wall trying to get someone to listen to them, help them and fund them. Our politicians ignore them and continue to rant about Internet Censorship - an entirely separate issue with its own set of problems and concerns.

The issue of child pornography isn't new. Before the internet there were mailing lists where this material was exchanged and clubs where pedo's could get together to normalize each others behaviour. The Internet has given them the tools to do this easier, but its also given us the tools to find them. The issue has been able to grow to the size it is because our politicians have been too busy arguing about pornography in general, trying to get it banned under the premise that this is the reason people molest children. While we might find it weird and offensive to see grown adults wearing clown suits and pleasuring one another, how is this consentual act even comparable to the molestation of a BABY with a freakin' pencil?!

I agree that there is a major problem concerning children and what they can access online. But the mass production of child pornography is a different issue involving the physical safety of children. Both issues require different resources. They can not be solved together, which has surely been proven with a decade of wasted time and money and the sheer volume of child pornography which exists today.

I have been ranting for this entire decade about the need to create a safe place for children online, which simply won't be achieved by filtering or censorship of the Internet overall. We don't send children out into the streets to go to school, we send them to a safe building with security and rules. Until the Internet creates a safe and separate place for children and brings together key parties like government, google, disney and web hosts we will resolve nothing.

Where child pornography is concerned, the best thing that will come from this show is arming women with this information. As Flint Waters said, many of the crimes are committed in the home while the Mother sleeps. Lets continue to educate ourselves so that we know what to look for, what to do and how to make a change.

Original post at: http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/88211?start=1305&tstart=0