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

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.