The Growing Plague of Child Pornography

Child pornography was pretty much eradicated in the 1980s," says Kevin Delli-Colli, head of the Cyber Smuggling Center. But, "with the advent of the Internet, it exploded.

"A survey of 1,501 U.S. kids aged 10 to 17 conducted in 2000 showed that approximately one in four had had an unwanted exposure to some kind of image of naked people or people having sex in the last year. Roughly one in five kids had received a sexual solicitation or approach. One in 33 kids had received an aggressive solicitation."

The above quotes from Newsweek magazine (March 19) should make parents sit up and take notice. Sadly, some parents have themselves been involved in offering pornography to children. According to the same article, a Web site contained a bulletin board that "included ads from parents offering to swap their children for sex to like-minded parents," and some men were involved in an Internet chat room called "Dad & Daughter Sex."

Although Internet firms profess willingness to cooperate with police and the FBI in finding and prosecuting adults seeking sex with children, the same firms often express indignation about their "constitutional right" to provide Internet porn to adults.

Meanwhile, the content of pornographic materials continually grows more debased as people seek new sexual thrills. It is easy to see why child porn is a growing problem and why increased numbers of middle-aged men are serving prison terms for molesting children.

Child porn itself is progressively worsening. Newsweek's article quotes one individual working to save children: "In the beginning it was photos of nude children . . . But progressively, I began to discover tortures." One Internet site "was peddling a tape to American suspects in which a molester was depicted . . . beating up a child."

Sadly, most of the purchasers of such material are themselves parents.

What can be done about pornography?

Americans need to be aware that, no matter what decisions courts may reach, there is no constitutional right to pornography. The framers of the Constitution could have had no concept of the technological advances that have made today's porn and its distribution possible. Typically the sexually depraved are in the forefront of efforts to support the right to access such material.

It is unlikely, though, that anything will be done about it until there is a change in public opinion. People need to realizehow harmful pornography is. Many who may never look at it themselves often think of it as harmless. This is a mistake. Pornography does harm to anyone who gets involved with it—and it is increasingly harming our young children.

The Bible tells us that the consequences of the sins of one generation can extend to the next three or four generations (Deuteronomy 5:9). The Newsweek article states that "a significant risk factor for becoming a child molester is having been sexually abused as a child. 'Some victims of abuse may want to recreate their own experience, to give them mastery over it,' says psychologist Christine Courtois of the Psychiatric Institute of Washington.'"

Porn contributes to illicit sex and child porn to sex with children. Those children in turn will molest others one generation later, each one molesting dozens more. The effect on society will only worsen with each generation—unless people work together and as individuals to stop it now. GN