Posted on 05/19/2005 11:05:47 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
On February 2, 2003, when seven-year-old Danielle van Dam disappeared from her family home in the middle of the night, every mother’s nightmare was played out on national television for almost a month while authorities searched for the girl. When Danielle’s body was found at the end of that month, the police and prosecutors discovered a frightening story about a neighbor of Danielle’s who had computer files filled with child pornography and even a sickening cartoon video of the rape of a young girl.
According to a report by Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, on the link between pornography and violent sex crimes, the prosecutor in the Danielle van Dam case said “The video represented [the defendant’s] sexual fantasies and inspired the abduction, rape, and murder of Danielle.” According to Raymond Pierce, a retired NYPD detective who worked on the sex-crimes squad for many years and is now a criminal-profiling consultant, about 80 percent of rapists and serial killers are heavy pornography users. I was a victim of an attempted rape by a disturbed man who turned out to be involved in pornography.
May is Victims of Pornography Month. Today Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kan.), Rep. Katherine Harris (R., Fla.), Rep. Joe Pitts (R., Pa.), and leaders from the values community will participate in a summit to explore the troubling connection between pornography and violence against women and children.
Florida attorney general Charlie Crist advises parents that “we must never lose sight of the fact that sexual predators make the online world a dangerous place for innocent children. Parents must be ever-vigilant to make sure their children are not exposed to images and messages that would have been unthinkable just a generation ago.” Crist warns that we cannot allow the Internet to be a “pipeline for pornography aimed at children.” But while parents can use available means to protect their children when they are in their own homes, there is a cultural climate surrounding our children that threatens them the way Danielle van Dam was threatened. Because of the availability of pornography online, there is no way of knowing what lurks in the hearts of our neighborhoods.
More needs to be done to evaluate the connection between violent predatory behavior and pornography, and to crack down on these violent predators. Police and law-enforcement officers across the country report brutal instances in which those addicted to pornography utilized its sadistic images on their female and child victims.
Just this past February, the New York Times reported a story about a teenage babysitter who had raped three young children he was watching in their homes. According to the Times, his pattern was to watch pornographic videos with the oldest of the children, a 12-year-old boy, and intimidate them all by torturing them with a knife and threats to their family members. Perhaps one of the most notorious serial killers, Ted Bundy, participated in an interview with Dr. James Dobson shortly before he was executed. In the interview, Bundy explained, “I’ve lived in prison for a long time now. And I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence like me. And without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography — without exception, without exception — deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography.”
Since 1956, the Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment does not protect obscene materials. If we know from the perpetrators themselves how obscenity contributes to violence against women and children, what can we do?
We need to fund more studies of the addiction to pornography and its effects on violent behavior. Parents can install filters on any computer used by children and keep the family computer in a central location, not in a child's bedroom or someplace where parents might not regularly see it. We need to demand tougher law enforcement on the state and federal level. The Bush administration is stepping up federal enforcement of obscenity laws. This is a good first step. Contact the U.S. attorney for your district and ask what they are doing to enforce the laws. We need tougher state penalties against both possession and distribution of child porn and passing any kind of pornographic material to kids. Experts indicate that pornography is often used by pedophiles to break down the resistance of child victims. Parents should check out their state’s penalties for child rape and make sure offenders are going to jail and staying there for these offenses. Florida, for example, just passed a tough new law after the tragedy involving Jessica Lunsford, whose killer was a recently released violent offender. We should pass legislation to address the threat to children on the Internet. This includes chat sites, websites, spam, and peer-to-peer networks. Peer-to-Peer networks are of particular concern because they are widely visited by kids and offer porn for free without any age verification.
As Rep. Katherine Harris has pointed out, "Pornography displays human beings as objects, obliterating the wall between an individual's sick fantasies and the compulsion to act upon them. Often, the monsters who hurt women and children start with this malignant desensitizer." We need to all work together to find better ways to protect women and children against this violence.
You are a cool mom!
Yep, kids have to grow up and make their own decisions, right or wrong. I would rather see my kids run home with their tail between their legs after having done something stupid rather than never leaving the house tied to my apron strings.
And FYI, my kids turned out GREAT! I'm a proud mom of 2 adults contributing to the general good.
lj
Obviously no one would ever condone or protect anything to do with exploitation of children, even fictionally, it's wrong, no one here will disagre with you. It is the adult behaviour that is under discussion, how adults interact with themselves or others.
I don't know if you're a woman or man. I'm a woman. I thought you were a mom for some reason and based on that just thought it was weird for a son to ask. I don't want to get in your business so I'll leave my post at that. I didn't mean to be offensive.
Hard to make a your case under the monkier "dead corpse".
Necrophelia would realy be a tough one to defend.
No.
Is the inclusion of the word "supposed" supposed to influence my answer? Is this one of those editorials disguised as a poll that Rush has been going on about lately?
Some people can't handle the liberty of gun ownership either therefore.......
No. There have always been predators, child molesters and killers. They just didn't get the publicity in the past that they do now. I question the corollary. If you go with your premise, wouldn't you have to also propose a ban on all advertising?
You've got it 180 degrees backwards.
How about the one where you love liberty?
Name an abuse of anything you'd consider moral. Isn't it the abuse itself that constitutes immorality?
Or maybe the wife is the one that needs to do some thinking...
Well done. For the anti-porners on this thread, it seems that "use" = "abuse".
I do. "Liberty" isn't about the freedom to do evil. That's kind of absurd, doncha think?
Who is advocating protection of child pornography??!!
How about someone's pursuit of happiness? Can you see how that might be impinged by banning something they enjoy?
Again, for you argumentative slow types.....
Relations between husband and wife are private because of modesty, not because they are dirty or immoral.
Again, just for you scum.
Would it be a sin to use such tapes in sex therapy to improve a marital sexual relationship?
If a married couple should watch each other in the mirror and enjoy it, is that un-Christian?
So you'd be OK with your male children (or the male children of others) being in the porn business?
The parameters you place on your nannyism are interesting. You have very little confidence in the ability of the rest of us to run our lives, do you.
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