As leading scholars in the field have noted (such as Amy Adler), this happens on a larger level in society, too; the desire to protect the "innocence" of childr

As leading scholars in the field have noted (such as Amy Adler), this happens on a larger level in society, too; the desire to protect the "innocence" of children has become a goal in itself, fueled through moral panics based on narratives which frame children as helpless creatures who barely know what they're doing. The final point of this is what Zanghinelli called a "gothic narrative" - you're either for any and all laws to protect the children, or you're against them and might as well be a pedophile yourself. Adler asserts further (citing various examples) that child pornography law has conditioned the general public to adopt the pedophilic gaze in which even artwork from the 18th c. depicting a nude child can be removed from a gallery because it might "titillate" the viewer. She says that while such laws are better than nothing, they also do some amount harm in sexualizing children.