According to federal statute child pornography is a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The children vary in age from a few months old to 18 years old. Although the pedophiles that do molest children might be selective in age, race, sex, etc. this type of exploitation has no barriers; not religion, not economics, not social status, not ethnic.
Child exploitation is non-discriminatory.
What does that mean? It means that yes it can happen to anyone's child(ren); even your own.
Child pornography is produced, collected, and used by pedophiles for their own personal, sexual gratification with no concern for the welfare of the child. With modern technology there are several different genres: photography, videotapes, films, magazines, internet. The world of child pornography is international, it is a multi-million dollar industry. In the life of a pedophile his / her "collection" is a prized possession and it is never complete. To keep them growing the pedophiles will trade amongst themselves. Quite the opposite of adult pornographic material which much more visible, the world of child pornography is an underground society. They seek each other out, and try to remain anonymous to the rest of the world. We know that they are out there. But who are they? Where are they?
They will use their existing collections as a lure to potential victims. When children are shown pictures of other children performing sexual acts, they are lead to believe that this behavior is acceptable. Despite how they may feel about it; it must all right if other kids are doing it. Once the child has been seduced, the pedophile will often turn that around and use this material to blackmail the child into continuing. Thus succeeding in keeping their "secret" from others. For this reason public awareness needs to be raised to a whole new level. Child pornography is illegal and it needs to be eliminated. As adults we need to be aware of the federal and state laws against child pornography. By increasing general awareness we can become much more responsive to the issue and reporting the violations.
Pedophiles try and convince those of us against them that there is such a thing as consensual sexual contact with a minor child. They want us to believe that when "consensual" this contact is not harmful or damaging to the child. Legislatures and the courts have made it clear that a child is not able to give consent to sexual relations of any kind. Children are too young, too naive and too trusting of adults to realize when they are being abused. They usually feel powerless against the molester because of the fear of displeasing an adult. Because there is no such thing as a "typical" pedophile it is difficult to teach our children who to avoid. What we must do is teach them what to avoid. Did you know that as parents we are unknowingly empowering these molesters. When ever we tell our children that they are to always do what an adult asks them to. We are caught in a catch 22. We try to teach our children to respect their elders. We hope for them to grow up to be upstanding citizens. In our effort to do so we open up a window for the would be child molesters to climb in and steal our children's lives. Somehow we have to teach our children to be respectable people. At the same time we have to teach them that if a adult (stranger or family member), or even another adolescent asks them to do something that they are not comfortable with; if they are asked to do something that they know is wrong, that it is ok to say no. We need to let them know that they can tell someone, a parent, a teacher, a neighbor, a friends parent, a clergy person. They need to know that nobody is going to be mad at them or take them away from the people that love them. We can and must give our children the right to say NO to any request that they feel is inappropriate, wrong, illegal.
Child pornography is nothing but the exploitation of a child's trust for the sexual gratification of an adult, and it must be stopped.