kobold
Banned
Well, you indicated in your post that he had "victims". Was that just a poor choice of words?
Compassion with pedophiles?
- Thread starter snowieken
- Start date
Ariadne
Diabloii.Net Member
....he got caught looking, and got reported. He was offered help which he gladly accepted.
But see the point is - this man was the one and only person who believed me when I told him about how I had been raped. He knew. No one else, including my own mother, believed me, everyone just mocked me. He listened, and because of what he had been thinking, he understood.....and because of how I felt, he would never harm anyone, because he realised how it would affect someone.
Strange story, I know. It's also been nearly 10 years ago, I now realise.
kobold
Banned
Vivi, please don't think that I'm trying to belittle your friendship with this fellow, or his understanding of your situation. That said, his understanding of your situation does not negate or atone for what he did. I realise that you're saying he was only looking, which may not be considered as bad as following through on the act, but what if he had not been caught? Apparently he was lucky (as well as the child) that he was indeed caught.
My previous position hasn't changed.
Ariadne
Diabloii.Net Member
He would have gotten help one way or the other. In fact I think he was only looking hoping to get caught while looking.....so that someone would actually force him to get rid of it.
Well, you can't get rid of it, not of the thoughts. But I think he learned how to deal with it, without causing damage. That is a strength.
BobCox
Diabloii.Net Member
How about the whole fact that this is the only "Looking" Crime I can think of?
You can be busted for looking when it comes to this and I can't think of anything else that applies to, even terrorist or how to make bombs websites don't get you busted but one wrong click or redirect to Child porn and your a criminal, you can't even do research on the subject to back up a argument you might have in a thread like this and even if you can prove if was research you are smeared for life and a lumped in as a registered sex offender.
Ask Peter Townsend
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/petetownshend1.html
The paper he wrote is quite good on this subject and can be found at the bottem of the page linked.
AeroJonesy
Diabloii.Net Member
Looking through classified information is illegal. But the point is well taken.
Lyrs
Diabloii.Net Member
A lot of what I see as pedophilia is a mix-up of the natural aesthetically appealing (cute) nature of children with the sexual appeal of post-puberty adults. They are not the same thing, but some people are unable to distinguish the two. It doesn't help that society has increasingly sexualized children and their attire, either. People, these are kids, don't dress them up to look like sluts. Furthermore, the desire to want to investigate and be close to a child is fairly normal and I believe a construct of evolution. Evolutionary pressure would state that children with best ability to draw an adults attention would survive to adulthood. Normally, a child in the attention of an adult is less likely to suffer harm or die.
The question remains to be a method to either replace or correct this wrongful cross-link of cute-appeal and sexual appeal. I know many males are typically poor at understanding and analyzing their emotions, usually categorizing huge masses of emotions along the lines of happy, angry, sad, etc. So emotional literacy on the part of a pedophile might allow him or her to understand that this general attraction towards kids is not sexual, nor is it entirely unnatural.
The question remains to be a method to either replace or correct this wrongful cross-link of cute-appeal and sexual appeal. I know many males are typically poor at understanding and analyzing their emotions, usually categorizing huge masses of emotions along the lines of happy, angry, sad, etc. So emotional literacy on the part of a pedophile might allow him or her to understand that this general attraction towards kids is not sexual, nor is it entirely unnatural.
kobold
Banned
It does indeed get into a grey area. I'm of the understanding that the friend that Vivi referenced was busted for looking at a child (can we say with intent? Not sure of the proper terminology here, but presumably it wasn't just looking at a child walking down the street with his/her parent). I still maintain that looking at a child with that intent (for lack of a better term) and being caught is lucky for the parties involved, otherwise the person may have carried on with said intent.
I would have no idea what is required in order to do research into this area. While I consider child porn to be very offensive, and completely support the idea of it being illegal, I do understand the possibility of a "wrong click". That said, I can't remember hearing of a person being prosecuted for having an instance of child porn on their computer, it is typically numerous (hundreds? thousands?) of images on their computer. As I mentioned in a previous post, while it may not be committing the act personally, viewing/searching for this type of media is (IMO) supporting the acts being committed. Given the heinous nature of the acts, it should be staunched as vigorously as possible.
I guess where I am left for a position is that I consider children to be innocents, to be protected at all costs. Any person with an iota of sense these days knows that looking for/at child porn is a bad idea, and that there are serious repercussions for doing so. Therefore I have no sympathy for such a person, while at the same time hoping that the system shows some common sense (for the instance of a "wrong click" that may happen).
In terms of a person who would actually commit such acts (be it looking, or acting further), I've already stated my position, and don't wish to beat the proverbial horse again.
AeroJonesy
Diabloii.Net Member
What do you think of virtual child porn? That is, child porn that is completely created through digital means and in no way involved pictures of real children?
Holeinthesun
Diabloii.Net Member
Or pictures of Homer and Lisa Simpson having sex.
Or pictures where the model isn't a minor but dresses/behaves like one.
The area is so grey in places, there are areas that are CLEARLY child porn and others that only allude to it. Where a line is to be drawn is something that needs sensible discussion.
AeroJonesy
Diabloii.Net Member
Well I'm not talking about toons or adults dressed as kids, I'm talking about extremely realistic portrayals of child pornography.
Dondrei
Diabloii.Net Member
I'd put that in the same category myself.
I mean, if you broke into the building in which it was stored, that's different.
Holeinthesun
Diabloii.Net Member
Dondrei
Diabloii.Net Member
Can't think of many possession crimes I agree with. Unless what you possess is dangerous, like a bomb or bazooka or something.
AeroJonesy
Diabloii.Net Member
Burglar's tools?
WildBerry
Diabloii.Net Member
Indeed, Donny. Owning no item - not even high explosives - makes you inherently dangerous. So why do you make an exception to them?
I would concur with Yaboosh here. Items that are of limited right for people to possess carry a potential harm. Child porn is one, because it rarely has been produced bona fide.
I would concur with Yaboosh here. Items that are of limited right for people to possess carry a potential harm. Child porn is one, because it rarely has been produced bona fide.
Dondrei
Diabloii.Net Member
You mean a screwdriver, a bunched-up jumper and a hammer?
I'd say owning explosives makes you dangerous.
kobold
Banned
Gah, talk about being grey. The reason that I say that is I still don't "get" the motive behind wanting to watch/make it, but if it is something that literally had no involvement of children, then it isn't really child porn. Do the laws stipulate either way on this?
I guess where it leaves me is that my distaste of the subject is irrelevant, my concern is the possibility of it leading to the person wanting to watch/make actual child porn. That said, I doubt I would consider it illegal if it were virtual (or not minors, as Holeinthesun suggested).
snowieken
<img src="http://forums.diabloii.net/images/pal.gi
The morality of that is definately quite twisted, but I wouldn't say it should be illegal.
I think the posession of child porn is almost as bad as engaging in sex with children yourself - but in this case, no real children have been harmed.
Immoral maybe, not illegal though. If they need their drives fulfilled somehow, better let them do it this way.