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If it's used by someone who doesn't know the child, isn't that pretty much harmless? The only possible harm I can imagine is that the child is somehow identifie

by Nutmog 11y ago

If it's used by someone who doesn't know the child, isn't that pretty much harmless? The only possible harm I can imagine is that the child is somehow identified and discovers it later in life and gets embarrassed by it. Sure that's not nice but it's hardly the worst crime on the internet. And even then it's surely very hard to identify young children.

jacquesm 11y ago
Why would something have to be the 'worst crime on the internet' to be a crime anyway? Just like shoplifting is a crime so is murder. Shoplifting clearly isn't the 'worst crime' in society, but that's not a reason why we should not put a stop to it. I'm not sure what you're getting at with all this 'oh but childporn isn't so bad', it's almost as if for some reason you feel this is a subject that needs a strong defense without showing why you feel this is the case. I'm not going to say 'rape isn't the worst crime so let's give rapists a pass' either, absent a motive I can't find myself to side with the criminals in this case. Though I very much would like the law enforcement officers to stick to the legal side of the line when it comes to pursuing these people simply because I believe that is how the law should work. If that gets lost then we're all complicit in the crimes done in our name and I'd prefer for society to lose out on getting a few criminals caught if that means we get to keep the moral high ground. That's a controversial point with some but it matters to me. You seem to have given the subject a lot more thought than I ever would, but then again I don't have much reasons to think really hard about what the implications of child pornography would be. My contact with it has been limited to passing it on to law enforcement when detected with as much documentation as I could find on whoever was spreading it around and from that perspective I have very little love for child pornographers no matter what the source of their material and no matter whether or not in your were not harmed because they can't be identified. That's a very very thin bit of ice you're skating on because it all rests on what you feel is the truth. Such a personal perspective at odds with the law and with what society generally believes to be normal can lead to a lot of trouble. In other words, those people that have vast collections of nude pictures of other peoples children will not have to count on my sympathy if they start brandishing excuses like the ones you listed.
- Nutmog 11y ago
  I feel it needs a strong defense because many people seem to actually treat it as the worst crime on the internet. And more importantly, many people are locked up and have their lives destroyed because of committing this crime. The perpetrators are often vulnerable people themselves and nobody seems to want to stand up for them. In some cases they're not actually harming anyone but still get severely punished for it, both by the law and by the hostility of most people in society. I personally feel that the severe way we treat them is mainly because most people have a hatred for sexual deviants of any sort and the "causing harm" is a convenient excuse to justify extreme punishments and hostility. If that's true, then our society is no better than it was when we treated gays that way.

by Nutmog 11y ago

jacquesm 11y ago

Why would something have to be the 'worst crime on the internet' to be a crime anyway? Just like shoplifting is a crime so is murder. Shoplifting clearly isn't the 'worst crime' in society, but that's not a reason why we should not put a stop to it. I'm not sure what you're getting at with all this 'oh but childporn isn't so bad', it's almost as if for some reason you feel this is a subject that needs a strong defense without showing why you feel this is the case. I'm not going to say 'rape isn't the worst crime so let's give rapists a pass' either, absent a motive I can't find myself to side with the criminals in this case. Though I very much would like the law enforcement officers to stick to the legal side of the line when it comes to pursuing these people simply because I believe that is how the law should work. If that gets lost then we're all complicit in the crimes done in our name and I'd prefer for society to lose out on getting a few criminals caught if that means we get to keep the moral high ground. That's a controversial point with some but it matters to me. You seem to have given the subject a lot more thought than I ever would, but then again I don't have much reasons to think really hard about what the implications of child pornography would be. My contact with it has been limited to passing it on to law enforcement when detected with as much documentation as I could find on whoever was spreading it around and from that perspective I have very little love for child pornographers no matter what the source of their material and no matter whether or not in your were not harmed because they can't be identified. That's a very very thin bit of ice you're skating on because it all rests on what you feel is the truth. Such a personal perspective at odds with the law and with what society generally believes to be normal can lead to a lot of trouble. In other words, those people that have vast collections of nude pictures of other peoples children will not have to count on my sympathy if they start brandishing excuses like the ones you listed.

Nutmog 11y ago
I feel it needs a strong defense because many people seem to actually treat it as the worst crime on the internet. And more importantly, many people are locked up and have their lives destroyed because of committing this crime. The perpetrators are often vulnerable people themselves and nobody seems to want to stand up for them. In some cases they're not actually harming anyone but still get severely punished for it, both by the law and by the hostility of most people in society. I personally feel that the severe way we treat them is mainly because most people have a hatred for sexual deviants of any sort and the "causing harm" is a convenient excuse to justify extreme punishments and hostility. If that's true, then our society is no better than it was when we treated gays that way.