THE CRIME OF MAKING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY                                                        

It is a crime everywhere to make child pornography because in doing so, the children in the pictures are victims for two reasons. They are subjected to doing things they don’t want to do and should not be doing and their pictures will be seen my many persons and possibly by their friends also—for ever. Both of these kinds of incidents would be traumatic for these victims.

I should point out however that merely depicting naked children in pictures is not considered child pornography. There was a published nudist magazine that had many pictures of nude children in the magazine and the magazine was not prosecuted for depicting these children on the pages of the magazine since they weren’t participating in any form of sexual activities.

Child pornography includes any image, however created, or any description of a person, real or simulated, who is depicted, made to appear, look like, represented or described as being under the age of 18 years—(i) engaged in sexual conduct; (ii) participating in, or assisting another person to participate in, sexual conduct; or (iii) showing or describing the body, or parts of the body, of such a person in a manner or in circumstances which, within context, amounts to sexual exploitation, or in such a manner that it is capable of being used for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Hence, a picture of a small child lying on her back with her legs spread apart to the extent that her vagina is shown, would be suggestive of her waiting to have sex with a man. The picture would be highly exploitive and for this reason, it would be deemed as child pornography.  On the other hand, if she was merely lying on her back with her legs together, it would not be considered as pornographic.

It is a crime if anyone(a) unlawfully possesses;(b) creates, produces or in any way contributes to, or assists in the creation or production of;(c) imports or in any way takes steps to procure, obtain or access or in any way knowingly assists in, or facilitates the importation, procurement, obtaining or accessing of; or(d) knowingly makes available, exports, broadcasts or in any way distributes or causes to be made available, exported, broadcast or distributed or assists in making available, exporting, broadcasting or distributing, any film, game or publication which contains depictions, descriptions or scenes of child pornography or which advocates, advertises, encourages or promotes child pornography or the sexual exploitation of children, shall be guilty of an offence.

Showing or describing parts of the body of a child in a manner or in circumstances which, within context, amounts to sexual exploitation, or in such a manner that it is capable of being used for the purposes of sexual exploitation is illegal.  

Child sexual exploitation is a form of sexual abuse that involves the manipulation and/or coercion of young people under the age of 18 into sexual activity in exchange for things such as favors, money, gifts, accommodation, affection and/or status.

The manipulation or ‘grooming’ process involves befriending children, gaining their trust, and often feeding them drugs and alcohol or doing other favors for them sometimes over a long period of time, before the abuse begins. The abusive relationship between victim and perpetrator involves an imbalance of power which limits the victim’s options. It is a form of abuse which is often misunderstood by victims and outsiders as consensual. Although it is true that the victim can be tricked into believing they are in a loving relationship, no child under the age of 18 can ever consent to being abused or exploited.

“The term “sexual exploitation” means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another person as stated by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Bulletin on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse.

The question facing parents is whether or not a parent publishing naked photos of his or her children amounts to sexual exploitation or in such a manner that it is capable of being used for the purposes of sexual exploitation?

This question is distinct from a different question, namely whether parents should be publishing naked photos of their children, even if it isn’t child pornography? This second question has more to do with your children’s right to privacy and how you are effectively making decisions for them about how little privacy they will have in a connected world where the Internet doesn’t forget.

Whether a picture of a naked child amounts to child pornography isn’t always clear and there is certainly room for interpretation based on the context but classifying “any image of a naked child” as pornography seems to be interpreting the law too broadly, especially if the possible consequences for parents sharing these sorts of photos with friends and family with innocent intentions can be so severe that they are imprisoned or alternatively, they lose custody of their children.

What parents should seriously consider is whether they should share seemingly innocent photos of their naked or partially naked children online. The Internet doesn’t forget what is put into it and when you publish photos of your children publicly, you make decisions about their present and future privacy for them without them being able to make a meaningful decision themselves.

In Canada, the penalty of making and/or publishing child pornography is ten years in prison. Further, the record of these convictions will never be removed from government records. If the person who makes child pornography is participating in the sex acts with the victims, that person will be subjected to a much higher penalty.

Persons who downloaded child pornography for their own sexual arousal are suffering from a sexual sickness and should be treated for this sickness. However, those who make it and publish it to make money are really evil criminals because they use innocent children for this evil deed and unfortunately, these unfortunate victims will suffer the horror of knowing that their faces will forever end up in the  public domain.