Justice Department's 'New Strategy' to Curb Sexual Exploitation of Children Ignores the Elephant in the Room -- Namely, Hardcore Adult Pornography

Justice Department's 'New Strategy' to Curb Sexual Exploitation of Children Ignores the Elephant in the Room -- Namely, Hardcore Adult Pornography

NEW YORK, Aug. 4 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Monday, Attorney General Holder announced the "first-ever National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction." The Release said the strategy "also provides the first-ever comprehensive threat assessment of the dangers facing children from child pornography, online enticement, child sex tourism, commercial sexual exploitation...and outlines a blueprint to strengthen the fight against these crimes."

MIM President Robert Peters commented:

Strangely missing from Attorney General Holder's "comprehensive threat assessment of dangers facing children" online is the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography which is contributing to sexual exploitation of children in variety of ways, including:

* Perpetrators use hardcore adult pornography to groom their victims.
* Many perpetrators progress from viewing adult pornography to viewing child pornography.
* Johns act out what they view in hardcore adult pornography with child prostitutes.
* Addiction to adult pornography wrecks marriages, and children raised in one-parent households are more likely to be sexually exploited.

Furthermore, children are not just harmed by online predators; they are also harmed by online exposure to hardcore adult pornography which depicts sex with teens, family members, multiple partners, prostitutes and animals. This material also depicts excretory activities, sexual violence against women, and unsafe sex galore.

And children today are exposed to hardcore adult pornography like no generation before them. According to a survey reported in CyberPsychology & Behavior (2008), 93.2% of boys and 61.1% of girls "had seen online pornography before age 18...and boys were significantly more likely to view online pornography more often and to view more types of images."

I would add that the Congressionally-created COPA Commission included the following Recommendation in its 2000 Final Report (available at www.copacommission.org):

"Specifically, the Commission recommends that Government at all levels fund aggressive programs to investigate and prosecute violations of obscenity laws... This investigation and prosecution program should supplement the Government's existing effort to investigate and prosecute child sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and child pornography.. Such a program should be of sufficient magnitude to deter effectively illegal activity on the Internet."

Despite this recommendation, the Justice Department continues to focus almost exclusively on sexual exploitation of children crimes; and Congress goes along with this nonfeasance by remaining silent and failing to fund enforcement of federal obscenity laws.

Two informative documents entitled, "How Adult Pornography Contributes to Sexual Exploitation of Children" and "Harm to Children from Online Exposure to Hardcore Adult Pornography," are posted at www.obscenitycrimes.org ("Porn Problem & Solutions").

Source/Robert Peters, Morality in Media, 212-870-3210