Child pornography is a material that depicts children or adolescents under age 18 engaged in explicit sexual acts or posed nude in a provocatively sexual manner. Also known as "kiddie porn." Child pornography may include written materials, photographs, drawings, films, videos, cartoons or computer graphics of children who are engaged in sexual acts or posed provocatively. Law enforcement and other experts consider child pornography to be directly linked to sexual molestation and child prostitution.

Because of the ubiquity of the internet and the fact that it is much more difficult to track, monitor and control than with other means of purveying child pornography (such as by mail or with a direct purchase from another person), the Internet has become a popular means to obtain such material. However, it is also illegal to purchase child pornography over the Internet, and individuals who obtain child pornography over the Internet can be prosecuted as well.

Said Finkelhor and Ormrod in their article for Juvenile Justice Bulletin in 2004, "Pornography that depicts actual juveniles has a very different status under the law than other types of pornography. It is not subject to first amendment protection and the more contentious standards that apply to other types of pornography. It is also regarded as having victims--the children who are depicted."

One potentially new concern is that increasing numbers of children and adolescents use cellular phones, and many phones can access Internet sites remotely, including pornographic sites. Thus, parents and other caregivers who believe that they are carefully monitoring their children's use of the Internet at home may be unaware of the potential impact of the cell phone in both the transmission and viewing of child and/or adult pornography.

The possession of child pornography is illegal under federal law as well as under all state laws. For example, federal law prohibits sexually explicit conduct that involves a minor and also bans the depiction of children engaged in acts of sexual intercourse, bestiality and masturbation. It is illegal to purchase child pornography through the United States Postal Service, and the buyers of such material are prosecuted by law enforcement officials.

It is also illegal to take sexual photographs of children, and if the film is given to photography developers in some states, child protective services must be contacted. However, the increasing prevalence of digital cameras may enable users to skip the need for film processing because digital images can be immediately viewed as well as sent to others by cellular phone or computer.

Often children are unwilling or even unknowing players in the production of child pornography. Children may be given alcohol or drugs to increase their susceptibility to victimization.

If children or adolescents know or discover that they have been used to create pornographic images or videos, they may initially believe that these images or videos made in private will remain private; they are subsequently horrified to discover that these materials are sold (or the child victims are threatened that they will be sold unless the child agrees to whatever terms that the adult victimizer demands) to others who may view them on the Internet. Children who know or suspect that there are images of themselves engaging in sexually explicit acts will often fear that others, such as family members and friends, will discover these images. As a result, they are more easily controlled by a sexual predator.

Said John Carr in his report on child abuse and child pornography in the United Kingdom,

While rapes and sexual assaults that resulted from initial contacts in a chatroom [on the Internet] are perhaps the most extreme forms of contact-based predation, they are by no means the only forms. No reliable numbers are yet available, but we know, for example, that children have been persuaded to perform and photograph or take videos of sexual acts that they have undertaken either alone or with friends, and these images have then been sent to the abuser. Such images might later be published on the internet and become part of the stock of child abuse images that are traded between collectors or sold commercially. They can also give the abuser a greater hold over the child because they can be used to blackmail the child into performing other sexual acts and into keeping the relationship a secret.

Children have also been persuaded to perform or witness sexual acts live via web cams, to watch videos online or to listen to audio files with sexual content. Sexual predators have inveigled children into abusive, sexually explicit conversations either online in chatrooms or via email or directly by voice, and these can be psychologically very damaging for the child.

According to experts Ormrod and Finkelhor in Child Victimization, child pornography users, as with most other users of any form of pornography, are primarily adult males. When adult females view child pornography, in nearly half of these cases (45%), the pornography was used along with a male viewer.

A study of nearly 400 state, county and law enforcement agencies in the United States was performed by Mitchell, Wolak and Finkelhor over a one year period starting on July 1, 2000. Their research results, known as the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study, were published by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2005 and also described in the 2005 book Child Victimization.

In considering the demographic characteristics of the possessors of child pornography, the researchers found that most were employed full time (73%), and the largest group had incomes between $20,000 and $50,000 (41%), followed by those with incomes of less than $20,000 (18%). Most did not have a diagnosed mental illness (89%) or a diagnosed sexual disorder (87%). Most did not have known problems with drug or alcohol abuse (75%). Most had not been arrested for prior sexual offenses with minors (87%). As a result, the general perception that purchasers of child pornography are always or nearly always convicted sex offenders is inaccurate.

This study revealed that most child pornography possessors were male (91%), and 86% were older than 25 years. A minority of 3% were younger than age 18.

About one-third (34%) of the arrested individuals had minor children living in their homes at the time when their crimes were committed. A total of 46% had direct access to children, either because they lived with them or because they interacted with them at work or in an organized youth activity.

Most of the child pornography that was possessed by the arrested individuals involved children ages six to 12 years old (83%), while 75% of the possessors of child pornography had images of children ages 13 to 17 years old; 39% had pornographic images of children ages three to five years old; and 19% had images of children younger than age three. (Many arrestees had pornographic images of children in more than one age group.)

The majority of offenders had mostly pictures of girls (62%), while 14% had mostly pictures of boys. In 15% of the cases, the offenders had about an equal number of pictures of girls and boys. (In 9% of the cases, the gender was unknown.)

Some offenders had a large number of images; for example, about half (48%) had more than 100 graphic images, while 14% possessed 1,000 or more such images.

Most of the offenders (91%) had downloaded child pornography using a home computer. About 18% of the arrested offenders accessed child pornography in more than one location, primarily home and work.

In most cases (57%), complaints by other individuals brought the possessors of child pornography to the attention of law enforcement, while in 43% of the cases, law enforcement investigations identified the possessors.

Possessors of child pornography appear to have a variety of motivations for their behaviors in addition to their sexual attraction to children. In an article published in Australia on the individuals who possess child pornography obtained over the Internet, published in Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, the authors provided some "cognitive distortions" that are often seen with these individuals.

An example of justifying behavior is seen with a statement such as, "Some children are married and having babies before they turn 16." An example of blaming others is seen with a comment such as, "The guys at work showed me where to find it. I wouldn't have gone looking for it on my own." Some users blame external factors, making such statements as "I was trying to make a point against unfair censorship and went too far" or "I was under pressure and just wanted a distraction." Some individuals state that they believe fantasy is acceptable and make a statement such as, "Just because I'm thinking about it doesn't mean I'd ever do it."

Yet according to the authors, some of their clients have contacted children. Said the authors,

When discussing their cycle of offending behaviour, some clients have described an escalation in the severity or frequency of their behaviour. Reports have included spending increased time accessing child pornography, progressing from viewing child pornography to seeking children for sexual conversations in chat rooms, and attempting to telephone children met online. Clients have also described experiencing child fantasies more frequently or beginning to fantasize about children they know or encounter in everyday life.

Apparently in some cases, viewing child pornography online may lower the threshold of some individuals and lead them to contact children and engage in acts that they might not otherwise have considered.

References:

1)         Burke, et al. "Child Pornography and the Internet: Policing and Treatment Issues." Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 9, no. 1 (2002): 79-84.

2)         Carr, John. Child Abuse, Child Pornography and the Internet. London: NCH. http://www.make-it-safe.net/esp/pdf/Child_pornography_internet_Carr2004.pdf

3)         Finkelhor, David, and Richard Ormrod. "Child Pornography: Patterns from NIBRS." Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, December 2004, pp. 1-8.

4)         Mitchell, Kimberly J., Janis Wolak, and David Finkelhor. "Internet Sex Crimes against Minors." In Child Victimization. Kingston, N.J.: Civic Research Institute, 2005.

5)         Ormrod, Richard K., and David Finkelhor. "Using New Crime Statistics to Understand Crimes against Children--Child Pornography, Juvenile Prostitution, and Hate Crimes against Youth." In Child Victimization. Kingston, N.J.: Civic Research Institute, 2005.

6)         Wolak, Janis, David Finkelhor, and Kimberly H. Mitchell. Child Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings from the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study. Alexandria, Va.: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2005.

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