|
 CIRCAMP and other Law enforcement agencies believe it is time to stop the use of the misleading term “Child Pornography” when describing images of the sexual abuse of children, and use a term or title that gives a better understanding of the crime and more respect to the child victims
A sexual image of a child is “abuse” or “exploitation” and should never be described as “pornography”. Pornography is a term used for adults engaging in consensual sexual acts distributed legally to the general public for their sexual pleasure. Child abuse images are not. They involve children who cannot and would not consent and who are victims of a crime.
Adults that are sexually aroused by these abuse images of children do not care or believe that the child is being abused so to underpin their belief by calling the images “porn” or “kiddy porn” allows them to think that it is somehow acceptable.
The adults that view these images also possess and trade these images to fuel their sexual desires towards children and this may result in an offence towards a child they come in contact with.
The child abuse images are documented evidence of a crime, not as Police would photograph a crime scene an event having passed, but a “crime in progress” - a child being sexually abused. Child sexual abusive material in the form of images or movie files will contain information about where the abuse took place, the abuser and the victim – all important clues in the Police’ work to identify the child and abuser and end the abuse.
The terms “kiddy porn' and “child porn” are used by criminals and should not be legitimized by Law enforcement, Judiciary or Media.
Children that have been sexually abused and photographed deserve to be protected and respected and not have the seriousness of their abuse trivialized by the term “porn”.
Precise definitions are essential and better and more descriptive definitions of such material are: “Documented child sexual abuse”, “Child sexual abuse material”, Child sexual exploitive material”, “Depicted child sexual abuse”, “Child abuse images” and the abbreviations CAM/CEM/CAI. In other crime areas regarding the sexual abuse of children, tabloid descriptions are also used, such as “Child sex tourism” or “Child prostitution”. Men, from mostly wealthy western countries, traveling to underdeveloped and poor areas to relatively risk free sexually abuse children is nothing other than “Traveling offenders” exploiting poverty. Tourism is something positive and prostitution is legal in most countries, and by combining these words with “Child”, the severity of the actions taking place is reduced dramatically. Law Enforcement should always try to describe the crime accurately and enforce this message to others working in this area as well as Media. |
About CIRCAMP 
