Sociology in
Cyberspace Project
STOP! Online Child
Pornography
What
do you think of when you hear the word “pornography”? There are many different
opinions from extremely favorable to disgust. But when you hear the words
“Child Pornography” all people
should have the same exact reaction, extreme disgust and outrage. Child pornography
is probably the worst of abuses that can be inflicted upon anyone.
Unfortunately it’s an issue that we must deal with in the society that we live
in today, especially now that we have the internet and an easier way for these
pedophiles to have access to our children. It’s very unfortunate that these
disgusting individuals take something like the internet that can be such an
asset to the learning of our children and turn it into an unsafe place for them
as well. Fortunately there are organizations that have been formed to combat
these individuals as well as their sites, systematically finding and
prosecuting them. But it’s simply not enough. The parents of children have to
get involved as well, to inform their children of these people and the things
they can do to help keep them safe. Cyberspace is only going to become a bigger
society for us and our children, so with the help of these organizations that
have been formed in order to stop these crimes against our children, we can
make it a safer place for everyone.
Child
Porn Facts
According
to the Anti-child Porn Organization:
Ø
Every 15 seconds
a child in the
Ø
Of all the
abused children 15% are victims of sexual abuse.
Ø
On the average a
sex offender has 117 victims.
Ø
95% of the
victims of sexual abuse know their abuser.
Ø
95% of all
teenage prostitutes were victims of sexual abuse.
Ø
In the
Ø
While some of
these abusive people only sexually abuse their own children, 44% of these
people are sexually abusing children outside their home at the same time.
Ø
And most child
abuse victims never tell.
ACPO, Anti Child Porn Organization
The
ACPO, or Anti-Child Porn Organization,
is made up of volunteers that span the world and their mission just like these
other groups are to stop the exploitation of children. The name of this
organization is frightening in itself, because if a group has to say they are
Anti-Child Porn, that means there are people who are for it. It’s striking at
first look, and it should make every parent think about what’s happening with
their children in this newest society, the internet. It’s really sad, because this
new avenue to be explored can be the friendliest, greatest place, of fun and
learning, but it also can be the darkest scariest place. In these ways it
mimics the society that we live in today. MSN has launched a new campaign,
doing away with the chatrooms in 28 different
countries in order to make their services safer for children. The ACPO states
that this is a bad idea because these people who are exploiting children will
just find a new service and probably it will be one that is less monitored.
Instead the ACPO suggests that parents should sit down with their children and
tell them where not to go and what’s out there that they may run into while
online. Give them specific things they can do in order to make sure they are
safe while online, to even scare them if necessary so that they realize how
serious this situation is. But to be sure that they know what they should do if
approached in this manner. The ACPO also states that child pornography isn’t
only pictures but also any physical evidence of sexual abuse involving a child.
The pedophile is desensitized by the amount of child porn material than can be
found and viewed via the internet.
ASACP, or Adult Sites Against
Child Pornography
The
ASACP home page turned out to be rather
surprising. There are a ton of websites that are pornographic by nature and yet
they are on some crusade to shut down child pornography sites. I think the
surprise comes with the fact that you wouldn’t expect these site owners to
uphold such standards, though the difference is incredibly obvious in that
adults have free will to conduct their lives in any manner they see fit, where
children should remain innocent in the matter of sex acts of any type.
The
ASACP, or Adult Sites Against Child Pornography, is an
organization that was set up in 1996. This organization links together over
4700 adult related sites, some of which are pornographic, and their cause is to
find and review reported child pornography sites and then report them to the authorities
if they are found to be illegal. Of the 100,000 reports the ASACP has found
25,000 valid illegal child pornography sites. Mainly their job is to weed
through all the reported illegal child porn sites and find out which reports
are legitimate and then pass the information off to the proper authorities. The
ASACP believe that their organization is important because the people who
report these sites are more comfortable reporting the illegal site to them, and
less comfortable reporting to the government agencies. Their goals are to raise
awareness and stamp out this illegal activity involving children which they
believe to be one of the vilest forms of child abuse.
Crimes Against Children
Investigated by the FBI
The
crimes against children unit of the FBI started the Operation Candyman Investigation in March of 2002. The IINI or, Innocent Images National
Initiative, is a branch of the FBI’s Cyber crime Program that was formed in
order to combat crimes against children on the internet. They were set up in
order to find, review, and prosecute sites and site owners that exploit
children; they also set up a presence of law enforcement on the web in order to
dissuade those who might try to exploit children in any way; and finally they
try to rescue any child that might knowingly or not from being victims of this
type of situation. When the IINI was first established in 1995 they wasted a
whole lot of time trying to hit every chat room that was slanted toward under
age children, but today they focus on specific areas in order to better help
fit these crimes against children. Child pornography and/or child sexual
exploitation is the biggest cyber crime problem to hit the FBI that
specifically focuses on crimes against children. Between the years 1996 and
2002 there was a huge increase in IINI cases opened, a 1,997% jump going from
113 cases to 2,370 and they suspect in the next several years the problem, as
well as the numbers, will just get bigger.
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, is an organization
that has been fighting the exploitation of children for more than 20 years, but
is known mostly for finding missing children. So they launched a campaign in
order to make parents aware that they don’t only find missing children but they
also help prosecute people who exploit and abuse children. They go on to
describe the way a pedophile traps their victim. First they use child
pornography on their victims, showing them pictures or videos of other children
engaging in these sexual acts as a way to show the victim it must not be a bad
thing since other children are doing it. Then, after they initiate contact with
the victim and film them doing sexual acts, they use these pictures as
blackmail telling the child victim that they’ll show them to their parents if
they stop. So then the child is forced into more sexual acts out of guilt and
shame, not wanting their parents to find out they’ve been engaging in such
acts. This is also the reason that prosecutors can’t get child victims to
testify, out of the shame and guilt of other people finding out what they’ve
been doing.
Conclusion
This
makes it an endless cycle of abuse, the child gets trapped and after engaging
in these acts they are blackmailed into repeating the acts over and over. It’s
an endless vicious cycle and it’s sickening and disheartening. Unfortunately
the world that we live in today is filled with these evil people that would
exploit the innocence of a child in such an unthinkable way. Those of us who
have children, or who are thinking of having children will live in constant
fear of what could happen to them. I couldn’t think of a more cruel and vicious
and evil thing than a person using a child for sexual pleasure. In fact it’s
such an awful thing to think about that most of us avoid it all together. It
gives me some hope to see so many organizations that are fighting for the
safety of our children. In a perfect world we could let our children play in
any society, whether real or virtual, without fear of some pedophile preying on
them. But we don’t live in a perfect world, so in the imperfect world we live
in, we’re very fortunate to have organizations such as these that are policing
our virtual society in order to sweep away all the garbage that our children
can run into. But I believe the key is the parents. We all have to get
involved. Know what our children our doing and where they are hanging out and
who they are hanging out with. It’s the only way that we’ll ever know if our
children will truly be safe. So stay involved and always be aware of what’s
lurking around the corner in every society your child roams.
Sources:
http://www.asacp.org/