Pedophilia and Porn

Recently, in the greater Happy Valley there have been two highly publicized child porn cases, and there is no doubt that in each case, neither man could be said to have had merely a passing curiosity. One was a high school teacher where the materials were found at his home; the other one was a pre-school teacher/day care center worker who admitted to viewing child porn at work, among other places. Neither is known to have actually molested any children at this time, although the consumption of child porn with live “models” almost surely means kids were molested in its production.

Like most of us, I can’t relate to anyone who takes an interest in child porn, save for research and prevention purposes. So, for me these incidents at first raised more questions than provided answers, and correctly, I think, forced me to challenge my own, pro-free speech, opinions about pornography.

I favor laws which prohibit the production of porn using children and measures to prevent pedophiles from having positions where they are entrusted with children.

The most obvious justifications for this position to me are: first, the bodies of prepubescent children are not ready for sexual experiences; second, prepubescent children cannot be expected to make informed choices; and, thirdly, even if well informed, we cannot expect prepubescent children to have a meaningful choice when interacting with adults (or pubescent teenagers) upon which they are dependant or taught to respect.

But, the anti-porn advocates have used these sad and tragic circumstances locally to justify their stance against all, including adult, pornography, and thus their continued invalidation of the naturally occuring, graphic sexual orientation of others, primarily heterosexual men. I think this is wrong.

In contrast to child porn, the consumers of, and participants in, adult porn are in far better positions to make informed choices and to make meaningful choices, however often such adults feel they had no real choices or conclude they were mistaken in the choices that they made.

To be sure all pornography, including adult pornography, can be and is often harmful for consumers and participants. But as my blog readers know, I’ve pointed out that the same can be said historically of consumers and providers of alcoholic beverages, among other socially accepted things. For example, just as there are porn addicts, there are alcoholics. But we, as a society, already have learned the hard way about the futility, if not the evils, of prohibition.

More specifically, anti-porn advocates argue that the adult porn fantasies of the catholic schoolgirl variety (e.g., with titles like “Barely Legal”) cause child molestation, just as adult porn fantasies of sex with adults cause rape. Arguably, child porn and adult porn do stimulate the tendencies of some people to molest and rape and, therefore, increase the incidence of molestation and rape. So, innocent third-parties are hurt, too. But, in the case of adult porn, at least, I doubt the incidence of rape and sexual abuse is increased more than drinking alcohol increases the incidence of spousal and child abuse and neglect, among other things. I really do not know in the case of child porn; how many people openly admit to viewing it, after all?

Certain anti-porn advocates are even more wrong, or naïve, I should say, when they harp upon child porn addiction as justification for banishing pornography. Unless they have spent years in alcohol, drug or sex addition programs such as AA or NA, I highly doubt that they are addiction experts. The real addiction experts, the recovering alcoholics and addicts with many decades of sobriety, will tell you that the roots of, and cure for, addiction are rooted in one’s personality, and in a higher power of their own understanding, not in the prohibition of the addictive substance or censorship of the sexually explicit materials themselves.

More impressive to me than the anti-porn advocates is someone identified as “Annie Mus” who wrote in the Talk Back feature of the on-line edition of the Gazette:

“Mary Higgins Clark, Smith School of Social Work, ServiceNet, Gov. Patrick, Department of Social Services, Church leaders, citizens of the Valley....Help these people BEFORE they harm our children, before we have to hate them because our daughters (and sons) suffer the shame and humiliation of being their ‘victim.’ It is time, no! past time, to offer help and support to pedophiles to come out of their deep dark closets and realize that, albeit they have these desires there are ways to keep them at bay.”

Now, there’s a voice of reason. Thank you, Annie Mus, whoever you are.

- AC