Talking about obscene material and legal cases regarding these materials has led to the discussion of a commonly heard of taboo in today’s society. Child pornography is the visual image of sexual acts being performed on a child or minor. As technology has improved in recent decades, child porn has found outlets through video and years later through the internet. However, with the increase in technology comes the increase in awareness of child pornography. As a result, the FBI and many other American police forces have been making efforts towards eliminating child pornography. While everyone can agree it is sick and exploitative, there are still unclear laws for how we govern this content.
In America there are many different ways in which we decide how old someone is. Those under 18 are considered minors in America and are look at differently in many situations. However, the age for consent in America is looked at as somewhere between 14 and 16, further blurring the line distinguishing the appropriate age for consenting sexual behavior. In America, some states will allow marriage for those under 18 if they are given parental consent. In other nations, there are kids under 18 fighting in military’s and being killed. This has gone on throughout history most notably in the Vietnam War and in many nations still today. The point is that the lines to govern content based on age simply don’t work uniformly. The world is saying that while some individuals under the age of 18 being trained to use weapons are mature enough to kill another human being, but not old enough to interact sexually as an adult or with an adult. While I don’t agree with the prior statement, as I do not condone child pornography by any means, there is some disparity in how much and what kind of importance we place on different issues.
In reading Mr. Jenkins article on Child Pornography, I found that there is a short history to the subject and that previous legal matters have helped the way child pornography is being eliminated. Extremely important in this history in the 1984 Child Protection Act, changing the age definition of a minor from 16 to 18. In doing so this changed the way people could afford to behave. As the situation was getting more publicity and attention, laws were becoming stricter and the battle against child pornography was being won. People were becoming too scared to purchase the material and the black market for the content was even drying up. By embellishing the statistics relating to this problem as NBC and other news organizations did in the late 1970’s, it elicited a response from the citizens demanding action to stop the vile problem. This is similar to the way the internet is being policed today. With the immense size of the web it is almost impossible to protect people everywhere and police all the content on the web. However, by making arrests public and showing that looking at child pornography will result in such public embarrassment you deter many individuals from the content. As the sting operations continue around the country and the problem is addressed, there will be less and less of a problem.
While I do not agree with many of the ways we define age in this country, I don’t agree with taking the proper measures to protect our youths. In setting a number for something like this we are helping to prevent an evil from occurring. Though the way we define a true adult in this country is far to complex to be considered logical, however, the measure towards preventing the distribution of child pornography is a great service of our police and other protective organizations. In considering other situations; it is probably better that citizens can become legally married, die in a war for oil, purchase cigarettes and even buy legally pornographic material; and all this before you even drink a beer.
