I know there is a lot going on in the news these days, but I hope you don’t miss this piece on child pornography, which is the result of more than a year of investigation by the New York Times. It’s a hard topic, but it’s so important that we understand this area.
People often believe that the threat of child pornography is overblown, that it’s merely photos of kids in the bath, or teens’ sexting, or animation, and that real kids aren’t hurt by it. The article shows the extent of child pornography and how horrific it has become in recent years. The images and videos have gotten more violent—truly sickening, as the article details.* The numbers are exploding. Forty-five million images and videos were reported last year, double the year before. The online world itself is creating new victims. Child pornographers operate in rings online, and to get access to the library of images and videos, they must prove they are not law enforcement by showing a new image, meaning they must abuse a child.
Law enforcement is not adequately equipped to stem the tide. As the article notes, funding for the internet crimes against children task forces remained relatively flat from 2010-2018, while the number of reports increased 400%. Funding levels are “vastly inadequate.”
The pain of online distribution never goes away. These victims become afraid to go out in public—if someone approaches them at a conference and says, “You look so familiar,” they don’t know if it’s because they went to the same high school or because the person has seen a video of their step-father raping them. These victims—and all children vulnerable to online exploitation—deserve better.
*One word of warning: If you read the full article, be aware that there are graphic descriptions of online exploitation throughout. The most disturbing descriptions are under the heading, “The Cutting Edge,” so if you know that descriptions of child torture would be difficult for you, you may want to skip that section.