Long-Term Effect of Child Pornography

Long-Term Effect of Child Pornography

Child pornography in its traditional form was produced and distributed in the form of photographs and magazines. Children involved in explicit sexual activities were processed in photographs and magazines. Obviously, that was not an easy task because child pornography then needed commercial processing that required many employees employed in production. Any of the employees could have reported the production of child pornography to the authorities and it could have been checked and stopped. That was the reason why during those times, child pornography was not so common. Furthermore, distribution of child pornography was also not as easy as it is today. During those periods, child pornography could have been distributed only by means of common governmental mail services or through some clandestine distribution networks. (Stewart, 1997)

During the mid-1980's, the home video technology evolved and it changed the scenario for child pornography. Pedophiles started using inexpensive camcorders to produce amateur child pornography videos and they could have done this without anybody's help at their own home with least or no worries about information of their acts to any other body or the authority. Thus, with the advancement of entertainment technology, the ways to easily exploit the children and create pornography of amateur children evolved. (Stewart, 1997)

With the advent of internet in 1990, the scenario changed in favor of pedophiles. It should be noted that before the advent of computer and internet, child pornography necessarily included activities of sexual exploitation of children, but after the invention and commercialization of computer and internet, soon the means of virtual child pornography were evolved. Virtual child pornography does not include any sexually abusive act against any child; these pornographic pictures are created virtually by using computer graphics. But that does not mean that now with the processing of virtual child pornography, the dangers of child pornography have decreased. Even virtual child pornography can be used by pedophiles to lure children and use them for their ill-ideas. With internet facility, they got an easy and much secure way to create, share and distribute pedophilic pornography anywhere around the world. It is difficult to regulate news groups, chat rooms and commercial online service and to check and stop activities involved with child pornography that are going on internet. (Stewart, 1997)

The long-term effects of child pornography can be extremely painful for children and some children may face such situational stresses and depression that can force them towards drug addiction and other serious ills (O'Meara, 1999). Traditional child pornography that includes actual abuse and exploitation of children is much more dangerous. Victims of child abuse often suffer the experience of guilt and responsibility for the abuse and betrayal that makes them feel a sense of powerlessness and feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem. Nightmares and flashbacks associated with posttraumatic behavioral stress are the common problems they may face. Their nature becomes bitter and inconsistent and while trying to cope with traumatic events of child sexual abuse, the victims often gets depressed, they can involve in prostitution or drug addiction, they may attempt suicide too (Kornegay, 2006).

It should be clear that effects of sexual child abuse vary from person to person (Sanderson, 2006). Some children may come up with the extreme effects of the sexual abuse they suffered, forget them and lead towards a better life if got a chance, while some other children may fail to recover their emotional and psychological strength and confidence. They may suffer failure in their general goals of life too. A victim of sexual abuse often finds himself alienated and different, the child often fails to express his or her real suffering to anybody else and that further complicates the consequences of the sexual abuse.