Internet Crime: The Simple Truth

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Initially, the idea of child pornography and sexual abuse is appalling to most people. Innocent young bodies and minds unprepared for the physical and emotional assault of sexual abuse and manipulation by alleged adults is one side of the coin. On the other side, the right for children to have sexual identities is being arbitrarily denied them. Again, it is a problem of definitions.

How do we define a "child" or an "adult"? How do we determine when a child is biologically and emotionally ready to engage in sexual activities? For that matter, how do we define "sex", "pornography", "obscenity", and "abuse"? In the U.S. alone, the age of legal consent can vary state-to-state from age 14 to age 18. Some countries have not established a legal age of consent. Other countries have set the legal age of consent as low as age 12. "Children" themselves have no voice in the decision making process. Rather, the legal age of consent is based on social/cultural/political/religious/historical biases and not on any quantifiable, scientific data. The problem goes even deeper than this.

Is nudity obscene? Should minors be educated about sex? If so, then who is responsible for educating minors about sex: parents, schools, religious organizations, or the government? Is it illegal for a minor to have sex with another minor? Are we manipulating minors by denying them a sexual identity? Are we manipulating them by telling minors that sex is a taboo? Who decides? And, who decides for them?

Minors can be exposed to a variety of sexually-oriented content on the Internet. Chat rooms, Instant Messages, and e-mail are notorious sources of sexual propositions. Adult web sites constitute about 2.4% (OCLC Web Characterization: 2001) of all publicly accessible Internet sites. Much of this content is blocked by "Adult Verification" systems, but not all of it. And, pictures of naked minors and minors engaged in sexual activities alone, with each other, or with an adult are sometimes published or exchanged over the Internet. Can any of this be controlled?

Attempts are being made at controlling access to sexually-oriented content over the Internet. Parents can monitor their children's access to chat rooms, and can use filters to block access to certain sites and filter e-mail. However, filters may block other perfectly valid content and may not block all sexually-oriented content. This remains to be proven one way or the other. Do children have a right to privacy? This is yet another extremely complex question to which I have no answer. Sexually-oriented and potentially obscene materials involving children may or may not be illegal. It depends on the age of the "child" and the "child's" nationality, the content of the material, the location of the site (the IP address) and the nationality of the site creator, and the location of the host server. Considering the number of factors involved, it is difficult to set international standards, to create equitable laws and regulations, or to enforce any laws and regulations that become established.

ACLU News Wire: 12-12-00 -- Incarceration of Youth as Adults

Adult Sites Against Child Pornography

Child Pornography Cases Involving The Internet

Ecpat International

Mailing of Child Pornography (USPS)

The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the U.S. Department of Justice

UNESCO: Sexual Abuse of Children, Child Pornography and Paedophilia on the Internet:an international challenge

U.S. Customs - Enforcement

Copyright @ 2002 by Robert J. Trader, University of Kentucky Graduate Student.
All rights reserved.

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