Comment by anigbrowl
7 hours ago
A distinction without a difference.
Even if some kid makes a video of themselves jerking off for their own personal enjoyment, unprompted by anyone else, if someone else gains access to that (eg a technician at a store or an unprincipled guardian) and makes a copy for themselves they're criminally exploiting the kid by doing so.
Seems like a pretty big difference. It's got to be worse to actually do something to somone in real life than not do that.
Just because there are different degrees of severity and different ways to offend doesn't make it not contraband.
Not really, otherwise perpetrators will just "I was just looking at it, I didn't do anything as bad as creating it". Their act is still illegal.
There was a cartoon picture I remember seeing around 15+ years ago of Bart Simpson performing a sex act. In some jurisdictions (such as Australia), this falls under the legal definition.
> Not really, otherwise perpetrators
You don't think it's worse to molest a child than to not molest a child?
> A distinction without a difference.
Huge difference here in Europe. CSAM is a much more serious crime. That's why e.g. Interpol runs a global database of CSAM but doesn't bother for mere child porn.