Shattering the Innocence of Youth

Originally posted on April 17, 2006

Child pornography has always been a problem. But what people don’t understand is that an enormous world of danger to the children was opened more than a decade ago and not enough has been done about it. The Internet itself is the most powerful form of communication and distribution of child pornography and it has been proven many times over the years. Yes, they are fighting it but it’s not enough if the problem is not shrinking. Politicians have far too much self-interest and other political issues to focus on making themselves unable to fully commit to the war on child pornography. Children are being lured onto the Internet by the child predators every single day right under their parents’ noses.

This is also a problem in Canada, people are getting arrested and prosecuted for possessing such materials; which I applaud. However, the core of the problem continues to be complicated, that would be the photo developers and distributors of the materials. It’s not everyday you get to read about a photographer/distributor getting arrested and prosecuted.

Millions of child pornographic materials are being downloaded off the Internet
every hour around the world. That means more and more children are being molested and forced into performing sexual acts. It is an issue that continues to be heavily neglected despite the media coverage in our daily newspapers, TV News programs and more. Parents need to be made aware of the dangers of allowing minors to use the Internet with total freedom. A 14-year old girl may not like being supervised, but she’ll end up thanking you at her high school graduation for being a parent with a lot of love and concerns for his/her children.

It's a subject I don't like to discuss, but it's part of the reality. Reality bites.

I have 3 nieces and an either nephew or niece on the way this May. The oldest being 18, I'm proud of them and I do worry about the choice they make because of the potential consequences, but it's a natural trait in my family to care and worry for the others more than ourselves because we want to see each other succeed.

It is a problem that is very likely to be never eliminated, but it can be fought and reduced to a low number. One is too many, but it's better than having millions of children be used as sexual pleasures for the adults. Especially in countries like Taiwan where children are being rented as sex toys. People need to pay for what they're doing to the children.

They don't deserve this at all.