Scourge of pornography a cancer

The recent trial of an Oshawa man involving sexual interference of a boy and the production of child pornography has brought home the seriousness of this matter to our community.

A U.S. lawmaker in the 1970s once said he could not define pornography but that he could recognize it when he saw it.

Much has changed since then.

The pornographic industry grossed about $4 billion annually in the 1970s. Today it is about $60 billion and growing.

Back then you had to purchase videos or magazines from an outlet, making it a semi-public purchase. But today with the Internet, such viewing of pornographic material can be done in the privacy of your home with relative anonymity.

Adult pornography usually involves viewing consenting adults and is legal. But child pornography involves the sexual abuse of children against their will and often involves kidnapping. This is illegal to produce or possess. Thousands of children are sexually abused to produce this material. Although some artists claim it is art, society generally condemns child pornography, wrongly called kiddie porn, for what it is. In addition, we utterly reject adult sexual abuse of children. The Harper government raised the age of sexual consent to 16 in order to combat child pornography.

Advertisers spend billions of dollars each year in an attempt to persuade consumers to purchase all kinds of household products. Marketing studies are conducted and many tests are done to achieve this goal. The process works. Advertising does influence us to buy products. It is the same with pornography, which mainly targets men, only the result is much more addictive than buying consumer goods.

Adult pornography reduces women to sexual objects and its effect on men who are addicted to it is to seek some form of gratification. This can have a destructive effect on the family and on the person who regularly views this material. It destroys a person's soul. With child pornography it is even worse because men who seek and view this material can be prone to move beyond to actually seeking out children to abuse. Psychiatrists regularly state that such men are incurable and their easy access to images of children on the Internet makes it much worse.

Of course, law enforcement has become very adept at apprehending the purveyors of child pornography. It is a worldwide business but it is traceable through expert tracking on the Internet. But good police work is not often met with strong sentences in court.

The images of such abused children are disturbing, to say the least. There are no firewalls around such material. Men who view adult pornography easily watch younger girls in their addiction, at 18 to 20. It does not take much to lower the bar and view even younger girls. The same applies to men who regularly view male pornography, who can easily stray into viewing younger boys.

The fire of lust is unbridled. There are no redeeming qualities in any kind of pornography. Parents must supervise Internet access by their children, for their sakes. Those who produce this material involving children are sexual predators. Those who regularly view such material can become predators of children. Parents, police and the government must work together to combat this cancer on our society and threat to our children.

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Durham resident Chris Topple likes to comment on various aspects of society. He is a frequent contributor to this space.