[ovucfwao] Child pornography

These are the standard arguments in favor of censorship of child pornography, and criminalizing possession:

1. Consumption of child pornography creates an economic demand for it, inducing more production and consequently more children being abused.

2. Viewing of child pornography puts ideas into the viewer's head, causing him or her to abuse children.

These are the standard arguments against censorship:

3. A potential child molester may be sufficiently satiated by viewing child pornography so as to decrease his or her desire to directly molest children.

4. Wide dissemination of child pornography may make it quicker to identify and rescue the child.

5. Some child pornography may have been produced without harming any child, the famous example being cartoons and animation.

6. Freedom to consume and possess child pornography may lead to a better understanding of why a person would want to view it, and what kind.  People who view it may come forward without fear of criminal prosecution, allowing scientists to broadly survey and look for commonalities. Understanding those root causes and making societal changes may ultimately help lower the demand, in contrast to #1 above.  If it works, this is a powerful demonstration of how freedom of even egregiously unpleasant speech ultimately leads to good through the power of transparency.

Some of the pros and some of the cons may each be true, requiring research calculation whether the benefit outweighs the harm.  What is the economic elasticity of #1?  (How does copyright law, of all things, affect child abuse?)  What are the conversion rates of #2 and #3?  How do you know if there was "no harm" in #5?

Further thought on #6: hypothesize that desire to view child pornography is directly related to the viewer himself or herself having been sexually abused as a child.  If so, we might be doing the worst thing in the world by punishing possession of child pornography with jail time, when it actually is a cry for help for a deep psychological wound that has never healed.

Before jumping into any debate about this topic, check to see if you are too emotional.  This post was inspired by someone else's emotional blog post vehemently espousing point #1, taking for granted that it is true when it is far from obvious that it is.