People who produce kiddie porn ought to be strung up by their johnson until dead. Of that, I am sure.
But I'm also concerned about how easy it is to plant something on someone's computer for political or other nefarious purposes.
We had an incident in our region where a pervert was "spoofing" somebody else's computer to upload this crap.
The guy who got spoofed was very lucky the cops didn't just arrest him because it was convenient and the evidence all pointed at him. Instead, he used his computer to help them catch the real perp.
So, yes, there really needs to be a clear distinction made. I also think a crippling fine and registration as a sex offender would be a more appropriate punishment for some of the older consumers rather than prison time.
Prisons ought to be reserved for society's most dangerous who need to be removed from the general population. A sick puppy viewer only is probably no more dangerous than a casual drug user. Both definitely need to be monitored but not incarcerated unless other factors indicate they are a real danger.
“But I’m also concerned about how easy it is to plant something on someone’s computer for political or other nefarious purposes.”
Type in any number of legitimate phrases into google such as “excited puppies” and images you don’t want of things like child porn may appear. Anything that appears on your screen is now on your computer. We have seen cases where that has happened and the police claim the person was downloading child porn.
“Casual viewers” and “casual users” make the distributors viable, and are enablers of perverse crime. Nothing innocent about them.