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In 1996, the Child Pornography Prevention Act expanded federal
powers over the distribution and possession of child porn. It requires
a five-year prison sentence and up to 30 years for the production of
computer generated child pornography or any visual simulation of a
minor engaged in sexual activity. “Visual simulation” was added to
this law because of a recent technique called “morphing”. You’ve
probably seen this process before in commercials and music videos(9).
Morphing can display a face on any body, which can behave in any
conceivable fashion; an ability that offers limitless possibilities to
the twisted minds of pedophilic outlaws. Some pornographers have
morphed faces onto different bodies and produced computer-generated
porn that contains no human subjects(10).
In spite of legislation and many other state laws prohibiting the
possession and use of child porn, some critics charge that society
actually tolerates pedophilia. Beauty pageants for children have come
under greater scrutiny only since the Ramsey murder case appeared in
1997. These so-called “beauty shows” seem to exploit the bodies of
children, showcasing kids as young as 6 with elaborate hair, lipstick,
false eyelashes and satin high heel shoes. They are extensively
coached, trained in adult posture and taught how to parade down a
runway for maximum effect. A show, which many say, contains strong
sexual connotations that do not belong in children’s events.
Ironically, these pageants could not exist without the cooperation and
financial support of adults including the parents of the children
involved(11).
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| Lolita Ad |
Hollywood has also come under attack for its periodic displays of
the child as a sex object. Director Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita
(1962), originally made as a dark comedy, featured an adult’s
obsession with his girlfriend’s teen-aged daughter. Of course,
author Vladimir Nabakov’s Lolita has been the unintended
recipient of the pedophile’s attention for many years, although the
novel was never written for that purpose(12). Nevertheless,
the book received widespread attention. “By the time Americans read
the teasing tale of Nabakov’s preadolescent Lolita in 1958 and
watched it on the screen, the sexual possibilities of young girls
found fertile soil amid the many baby dolls of the American
imagination” writes author Paula Fass in Kidnapped: Child
Abduction in America.
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| Pretty Baby ad |
Brooke Shields, at 13-years-old, played the title role in Louis
Malle’s Pretty Baby (1978), a story about teen-aged
prostitution which attracted a great deal of attention. And Jodie
Foster’s portrayal of a child prostitute in Martin Scorcese’s Taxi
Driver (1972) received strong criticism from movie reviewers
at the time of its release. It is unknown to what
end or what effect salacious depictions of children have upon the
American public. But most people abhor the glorification of sex with
children in any manner.
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Child abduction strikes fear into the heart of every parent, even
though the incidence of stranger child abduction is very rare in
America. During the 1980s, people with good intentions publicized
vastly inflated figures concerning child abductions(13).
Edwin Sutherland, the famous criminologist once wrote: “The hysteria
produced by child murders is due in part to the fact that the ordinary
citizen cannot understand a sex attack on a child . . . Fear is
greater because the behavior is so incomprehensible.” But the
trivialization of pedophilia in the media surely cannot be a good
thing. It seems to accept, or at least condone, the notion that
adult/child sex is simply another life style in line with other adult
sexual preferences. Or is it, as some say, much more ominous? Is it a
destruction of youth, a disturbance in society that is driven by a
psychological sickness, which imagines children as a vast sea of
opportunities for sexual conquest?
****
(9) A famous morphing sequence was The Dancing Baby in 1999,
broadcast daily over the Internet.
(10) Some pornographers have taken their cause to court arguing
that since morphed pornography contains no humans, it hurts no one and
therefore is protected under the 1st Amendment rights.
(11) Newsweek magazine ran a cover story on this disturbing
topic on January 20, 1997.
(12) For a brief discussion on this point see the article
"Lolita, a Girl for the Nineties" in U.S. News and World
Reports in the October 14, 1996 issue.
(13) The figures included, and sometimes still do, parental
custodial interference where parents will take the child from the
spouse.
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