Tuesday 29 November 2016

Child rape is NOT pornography.

I've got lots of different news alerts set up on my email account. It's part of my job: I have to keep my eye on stories, on the news, on what's happening with the world. I get lots of random stories sent to my inbox that have nothing to do with the topics that I've flagged but because they contain some of my keyword searches, they get sent to me. Many I don't even bother reading, but some catch my eye.

The amount of stories about child sexual abuse in my inbox seems to be increasing daily. Horrific stuff. Different stories from different publications but all with the same gut wrenching, awful details about innocent children being violated by a disgusting excuse for a human being: their father, their uncle, their teacher, their carer. The list is endless. 

This week, I was particularly horrified by a case that involved the sexual abuse of a child being videoed by the perpetrator. I won't go into the awful details but one thing, apart from the horror of what the victim went through, jumped out at me. It's been jumping out at me for years but now that I have three beautiful children of my own it grates more than ever. 

Please stop calling the sexual abuse and vicious rape of children 'child pornography' just because the vile rapist happened to film his crimes. It is NOT pornography. 

Whatever your stance is on the rights or wrongs of porn or the "adult film" industry, comparing it to child abuse is just plain wrong. If a man or woman was viciously raped and the crime was videoed and published online, it would not be referred to as pornography. Please let's afford the same respect to our children by not referring to the crimes against them as such. 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary online pornography is the  "Printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement." Child rape is not porn. It's child rape. So giving it the same name as a video of two consenting adults engaging in sexual activity for the pleasure of their viewers/themselves/whoever is insulting and belittles the heinous crime that it is. I know some people argue that many of the participants of porn films are victims in different ways, but that's another debate and not something I'm getting into here.
 
So many news organisations are guilty of using the term 'child pornography' - here in Ireland and overseas. I hear it on TV and on radio news bulletins regularly. Can we please stop? 

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