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I'm going to post an essay I wrote last year, it is the highest receiving mark for an assignment I have received in school yet. I think I got like a 96% on it.
The internet is a network of interconnected computers, used for entertainment, business, and information ( JSET 25:245-251, 2000). For years society has struggled to regulate and control pornographic material on the internet (Manuel, F. C., Solursh, D., Solursh, L., Roy, E., Thigpen, L. 2000). Child pornography especially has exploded in recent years (Curry, A. 2005). Today, in our society, child pornography is regarded as dangerous and unthinkable. (Curry, A. 2005). Civil libertarians, politicians, victims rights groups, law enforcement and the general public all agree that creating, trafficking or possessing child pornography is a form of abuse (Curry, A. 2005). However, all of these groups disagree on the proper method of preventing and stopping child pornography (Curry, A. 2005). This paper will take a look at the history and growth of child pornography in our society. It will also analyze the effects pornography and child pornography has on our children and youth, through statistics and through the story of a young boy who was a victim of child pornography. Finally, it will look at organizations and methods used today to stop online predators and to put an end to this abusive industry. This will also include discussing the controversial show ‘To Catch a Predator’.
In 1991 Bill C-128 was created, which is an initiative to create a child pornography law that would define it and criminalize its distribution and sales (Curry, A. 2005). The creation of this bill was strongly influenced by three cases of child pornography that had recently surfaced. (Badgley 1984; Fraser 1985; Rogers 1990). However, there was some conflict arising over this bill, many victims rights groups felt that the possession of child pornography should be criminalized as well (Curry, A. 2005). The bill was passed. Canadian law now stated "a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen" {Criminal Code C.-46, s. 163.1 [a] [1]) to be a child. This raised concern among Canadians because the age of consent was fourteen. Also, the word “depicted as” made many actors nervous who sometimes played younger characters (Curry, A. 2005). Many others also saw it as an attack against not only photos or media images but on art, writing, and other various forms of expression. (Curry, A. 2005). Myrna Kotash of the Writer Union’s of Canada released a press statement exclaiming that the government should focus on protecting children, not on tricking the public into thinking that censorship will solve the problem. This statement is extremely powerful because so many try to use the right of expression as an argument today (Manuel, F.C. et al 2000). In addition, there is no global control of the internet, no person or group can ever ‘own’ the internet (Leiner, B, M, Cerf, V, G,, Clark, D, D,, Kahn, R, E,, Kleinrock, L, Lynch, D. G,, Postel, J,, Roberts, L, G, & Wolff, S, (1998). In 1999 the Globe and Mail ran a headline “BC judge throws child porn law’ (Persky and Dixon 2001,). This headline was in regards to a painter who had made a painting of young boys in a sexualized manner and was taken to court for it. Eventually the painter was cleared because no child was ever harmed or used in any of the paintings. (Curry, A. 2005). This started to arouse concern in many parents, who now feared that child pornography was legal. (Curry, A. 2005). However, the painter merely reversed the law of possession of child pornography, not production. (Curry, A. 2005). The case was brought to the court several times, the government acted immediately to take charge of the situation. (Curry, A. 2005). The crown exclaimed that child pornography was harmful in three ways Children are abused in its production, it can be used for "grooming" purposes, and children can be emotionally scarred through exposure to the materials. (Persky and Dixon 2001). In the end, many agreed that the rights of children should be first and foremost. The Alliance for the Rights of Children (2003) explained on their Web site, "[T]his is not a freedom of expression or artistic merit debate. This is a Charter issue that involves the constitutional rights of children to life, liberty and security. In July 2005 we were given bill C-2, which was described as "one of the strongest, if not the strongest, child-protection law of any country in the world" (Schmitz 2005). This bill focused more on the intent of the explicit sex acts, whether they be written, images, entertainment, etc. (Curry, A. 2005). All of the bills that are in place today that focus on child pornography or exposure of children are constantly being challenged and debated, on both a philosophical level and a technological one (Mitchell, K., Finkelhor, D. and Wolak, J. 2003.).
Despite the extensive worry on this topic, there is still very little research done on it. (Sabina, C., Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D. 2008). This paper intends to show the two ways in which pornography has a negative effect on youth. There are those who are exposed to child and adult pornography involuntarily, and the victims who are participates in child pornography. A study was done with the New England University where they asked a group of boys and girls questions about their exposure to pornography. The statistic showed that involuntarily 17% of boys and 10% of girls had been exposed to pornography depicting rape or sexual violence and that 15% of boys and 8% of girls had witnessed child pornography involuntarily. (Sabina, C. et al 2008). 92% of boys and 62% of girls had all viewed pornography before the age of eighteen. Out of this group of youth there were many mixed and diverse reactions to pornography. (Sabina, C. et al 2008). Some felt strong negative feelings towards what they had seen, describing feelings of disgust, or feeling worse about themselves. (Sabina, C. et al 2008). However, others felt no reaction at all, and said the images did not bother or affect them in anyway. (Sabina, C. et al 2008). The majority did not find them particularly distressful though, rather more as a nuisance. (Mitchell, K. 2003). Studies are not aware if those who did show signs of stress or disgust were affected in their lives afterwards Sabina, C. et al 2008). However, it definitely does impact adolescent’s views on sex and control Sabina, C. et al 2008). This paper will look at a victim of child pornography and the effects it has. The New York Times in 2005 covers Justin Berry, aged 21 now, who started actively creating his own porn at age thirteen. It began when he was thirteen and was in a teen chat looking to make new friends and he was propositioned by an older man who offered him fifty dollars to take off his shirt on his webcam. Justin saw nothing wrong with this and did so, setting up an account through Paypal. This was how the cycle would begin of Justin, who was merely somewhat tech savvy, began his own website and receiving gifts from men all over. He would do countless acts on the camera that he justified he did by himself, so he rationalized that he should get paid for it. This was a horrible spiral for Justin, who met several of his customers in person and was molested on several occasions. He got into heavy drug use and secluded himself from his family. He describes afterwards that he wished so desperately that someone would find out so he could stop the whole thing. Eventually, he went to Mexico to visit his father and revealed to him what he was partaking in. His father did not put a stop to his business but instead helped him run it, purchasing prostitutes for him and taping it. Finally, a reporter found Justin and convinced him to stop this and get off drugs. Justin is now convicting several hundreds of men who bought into his website. It has been found that most of these men were hard-working professionals, many of whom had jobs working with children. Justin has received several death threats since making the decision to be a witness in the trial. (Complete story found with New York Times) Justin describes contemplating suicide countless times, but claims he felt powerless to change his situation. He also performed acts with other younger boys, who have now been found and set free. Many children were described as being raped or molested countless times, and all went through the same feelings of shame, fear and contemplation of suicide that Justin went through. He describes the feelings as torturous, and it all began by one chat room solicitor. According to the department of Justice, one in five children is subject to unwanted sexual solicitations online. Many of these solicitations occur in Internet chat rooms, where predators may assume a false identity and work for weeks, months or years to make contact in the real world with their victim. For the purpose of this paper, research was personally done to identify the pressures that children may face when entering a chat room. Using the name “Angelgirl12” I informed those who tried to chat that this researcher was actually a 12 year old girl. The amount of offers and solicitations that came was overwhelming. All coming from a simple online kids chat. There are many intervention attempts with this social problem. The internet, though it makes child pornography more accessible and international (Manuel, F.C 2000) it also helps find and put an end to child pornography. C.A.S.E (Canadians Addressing Sexual Exploitation) is an organization whose mission statement is to protect all children sexual exploitation. C.A.S.E brings awareness about the reality of child pornography. They push to bring more support and laws against participants of child pornography. Cybertipline.com and Kids help phone are other resources that offer support and help to victims. It also tries to shed light on the misunderstandings of abuse and what is okay for adults to do to children. Cybertipline.com also heads many searches for kidnapped children. Oprah recently has held two large episodes bringing truth and shedding light on the horrible subject, explaining to her audience candidly just how graphic some child pornography can become.
Another pop culture media method of stopping online predators has been a controversial show ‘To Catch a Predator’ on NBC with Chris Hansen. Chris Hansen poses as a young child and asks the men on the other side descriptions of what the men would like to do with the young child. After a few weeks Chris Hansen suggests meeting and the men come with condoms. After this, cameras come out with Chris Hansen, asking the men what he is doing, what his intentions were, why he is there. There is especially a lot of controversy due to the fact that one predator left the scene and shot himself; which shows the level of stability in these predators.
In conclusion, it is evident that the internet and child pornography have a social affect. It makes over 8 billion dollars a year (Weitzer, R. 2000) which clearly indicates how many lives it affects. The secret lives the predators maintain, the parents and their concern for their children, the laws and ideals behind the internet and the very children who are affected and tortured every day as they are far away from their families and are daily sexually abused. There is still little known about the effects of pornography in our society, how to fully prevent this international problem and to what extent of control we as a society should have over it. One thing is for sure though, children are abused and there are victims out there whom need to be rescued and saved.
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