Child Pornography and the Exploitation of a Minor

Child pornography is a growing problem in our modern society. I can’t believe how much of it is on the Internet. Just in the year 2000, there were over 324 conviction of child phonograph on the Internet. I believe child porn is a prelude to sexual child abuse. These men and woman that purchase and save kiddy porn justify their action by thinking it doesn’t hurt the child but in reality, it does. As the substitute teacher said in class, “Take the opposite position on child porn, try to defend it. Lawyers have to defend these people all the time.” To me, I could never defend these actions of child pornography and child molestation this is devastating to the children’s development in life. I have personal ties to these exportations; my family was torn apart because my dad molested my sisters. As an Adult, I realize that children are weak and vulnerable and they look up to their parents and other grown-ups for advice and guidance. Child pornography is not the answer we should be giving them.

In reading the News Weak article, “The Web’s Dark Secret”, I determined that pedophiles and child molesters are very good hunters when comes to finding their victims on the Internet. They hide behind their words that they type. Some pedophiles disguise themselves as young teen-age girls and boys while they befriend their victims. After getting to know their victims, some pedophiles will stock their victims by showing up at their high school or local play grounds. I remember an example of this type of pedophile; it was on the local news a few years age. A Phoenix police officer was caught giving oral sex to a 12 year old boy. The police officer met his victim on the Internet. After a long courtship, the two of them got together at the boy’s home in Glendale. The boy’s mother had just come home from work and found them having sex in a bedroom.

Pedophiles can also be a victim’s family member. This is how the pedophiles can easily make images and nude photos of their victims. These photos are then sold to organization like the Wonderland Internet ring that got busted in England in 1998. The Wonderland Internet ring was trading over 75,000 nude photos of children as young as the age of 3 months old. After the police were done cropping the picture of the victims, they determined that there were over 1263 victims under the age of puberty. This type of organized crime is spreading all over the world due to the advent of the Internet. I strongly condemn this type of abuse to children. These images and pictures only intensify the sexual desires of the pedophiles. As the F.B.I agent Peter Gulotta says, “They are always looking for fresh stuff.” Some pedophiles may even graduate to committing more heinous crimes against children such as exposing their private parts, molestation or even rape. The statistics in the article, “The Web’s Dark Secret” suggests, “That the evidence of child molestation and child rape is mixed.” The number of sexual abuse cases on minors went down 31% from 149,800 to 103,600 between the years of 1992-1998. On the Other hand, the people incarcerated for the sexual assault of a minor went up 39% from 43,500 to 60,700. Since 1997, the U.S. Postal Inspection Services has made their own findings. They found that 36% of people that possessed child pornography were also charged with child molestation or they were known pedophiles.

In closing, I now have a better under standing on my sister’s hatred towards my father. My father past away three years ago at the age of 86. None of his kids showed up for his funeral…not even me. Through-out his life, he had numerous run-ins with the law manly because of his obsessions with young adolescent girls. When my father was in his 50s; he married my mother at the age of 14. I have to conclude, that pedophiles and child molesters have to have some form of mental illness. This behavior is not normal or socially acceptable. How can the children of tomorrow ever function in a normal relationship if they are exploited, this damage is sometimes permanent. I should know! One of my sisters can never have children of her own because of the damage my father did to her.