I’m predicting that if society really does go down this road of treating child sex dolls, cartoons, fiction, and other forms of fantasy the same way it treats actual CSAM or exploitation, the consequences of doing so will be catastrophic, and the severity of the unfortunate results will take more from us than we’re capable of giving up. I feel as though, with time, society will be forced to reconsider and reverse its position on eliminating that distinction.
The line between reality and fantasy is a very fine one, one that is both innately understood.
The desire to censor/punish art and fiction, where no real child was abused or even involved, of a pornographic pedophilic nature is not centered on a desire to protect children from abuse or to prevent sexual abuse.
It is built on the same line of reasoning that justified just about every other kind of civil injustice.
That reasoning being that of morality, of prudery, of personal or communal offense, and of disgust, in addition to an unfounded fear that the existence and proliferation of such material will lead to a cultural deterioration.
These are the very same cultural boogeymen that justified preserving slavery, racial segregation, limiting the rights of women, censorship of pornography, and the oppression of the LGBT community. To employ these talking points is to imply that they are valid, and to imply that they are valid is to claim that all of these civil injustices against women, minorities, and the LGBT community were theoretically justifiable. They were not.
There is simply no reason to treat fiction as CSAM if your concern is based on empathy for those who are abused and the drive to pursue justice on behalf of those who were victimized.
By blurring the line between reality and fantasy, you are committing the grave error of shifting the focus from that of empathy for the victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and towards that of personal offense. Such concerns are similar, and can occupy identical places in one’s mind, but they are not the same.
An attractive female high school teacher preforming oral sex on an underage student for “extra credit” is still just as bad as an unattractive, out-of-shape male gym coach caressing the breasts of and kissing his underage female students while they shower, and both are equally as unacceptable as a garden variety pedophile taking candid photographs of contestants in a locker room at a children’s beauty pageant.
It’s important to understand that treating a comic book, cartoon, or text-based story that depicts such acts makes it harder for individuals to engage with the subject matter at hand and make informed decisions as to how they can and should be addressed, and that by targeting the desire, the interest in those things, rather than the actual, real-world actions or instances is a great and effective way to ensure that the line between real life and fantasy remains well-understood both in theory and in practice.
It also helps to have a more generalized understanding of how pedophilia and pedophilic disorder work.
Pedophilic sexual interest and sexual preoccupation alone are not valid risk markers for sexual abuse offenses against children, as studies have repeatedly shown that offenders who only consume child pornography are the sizeable majority and are low risk of committing a sexual offense while also having higher sexual interest, while contact abusers tend to exhibit lower sexual interest, but also suffer from variable psycho-social pathology and typically engage with pornography less.
Of course, CSAM is illegal and harmful to those depicted and shouldn’t be legal, but if the preventative benefits can be observed without harming children, as fantasy and fiction typically do allow for.
People often think that pedophilia is something that can just “go away”, like it’s a passing kink or something that society can just force people to happily and safely inhibit, which isn’t the case at all. People said the same thing about homosexuals in years prior, with gay conversion therapies showing ineffective results, but also causing suicides and drug dependence. Pedophilia is no different, and these negative dispositions tend to have more significant associations with sexual abuse and risk than pornography consumption or sexual preoccupation do.
Hence why allowing them a sexual outlet to indulge and express themselves is key to helping foster a preventative atmosphere.
Virtual/simulated child pornography is harmless. It will not cause consumers to get up and commit acts of real-life child abuse. It will not “whet the sexual appetites” of would-be offenders, nor will exposure or consumption of it add to any meaningful risk.
Studies on forensic and clinical samples of low-risk populations as well as high-risk indicate that such associations are the product of a selection effect, rather than a socialization effect.
It is my fear that we may have to learn this lesson again, and cause unneeded suffering and harm to people who do not deserve it.
