Huge anti-child pornography raids across Australia.

This is good news. Now if they could only change the laws involving the clergy: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040928_172.html

Well - the statute affects more than just clergy???

Yes, it does, but it also needs some serious revision. This particular case just happens to be high-profile at the moment.

Yeppers.....plate sin with gold, and all that....

Re: Huge anti-child pornography raids across Australia.


This must be hard on professionals helping the abused kids, too, Deb.

I've heard:

Masses of kiddy porn are available in the internet and more is being created daily.


Most internet kiddy porn was created some time ago and is endlessly recycled.

Which?

Both, I think.

I believe there was very current stuff, and 20 year old stuff found today.

I still have to ask why kiddie porn is prosecutable however old it is, but child rape still has a statute of limitations. This just doesn't make sense to me.

Well, I don't know from where you got that, cav, but at least, chidren pornography has a statute of limitations like any crime (besides murder) here, too.

The fact that some photos are "recycled" and perhaps 20 years old has nothing at all to do with the crime "children pornography".

I think the act of possession of the porn is current.

They may or may not be able to ping the people who prepared it if it is old - I am not sure of any statute of limitations.

Such a statute on rape and child abuse was lifted here some years ago.

Ahh, thanks for the clarification Walter. This issue raises my hackles, so I tend to froth at the mouth rather than read thoroughly.

Mind you, law varies so widely from country to country. It's tough to keep up.

Not for the paedophiles, it ain't - sadly.

Too bad no death penalty in Oz. A .22 LR cartridge only costs about 1-cent.

Couldn't you leave ONE thread without that crap, Cjhsa?

Crap, what crap?

And, actually, Cjhsa, while we are discussing paedophiles, one of the dumbest thing about any discussion of the topic - and one of the most useless and even actively harmful, is this ridiculous tendency to regard them as "other" - as monstrous and outside of the magic corral of humanity.

How many paedophiles have you actually met? Hmmmm?

Well, I have met plenty - and let me tell you, while their dangerousness is obvious and children must be protected from them, as individuals, they are some of the most tragic I have ever met, and their stories are often horrendous.

Many of them are the kids we failed to protect in the past - by making discussion of sex too scary and dirty for kids to dare to mention what was happening to them - by saying that families were bloody sacrosanct, and we must not interfere with them - by saying that men had rights over their women and children, and we must not question them. And, if we think this crap is not still going on all around us, then we are stupid.

These pathetic people were often abused in ways I hope you cannot imagine - and their minds and emotions twisted in terrible ways.

To deny them humanity is simply to be stupid about what humanity is capable of - we need to maintain calm, clear, curious minds about this stuff - and not shrink away by conveniently tucking people away as "monsters". We learn nothing when we shut people's realities out of our minds - just as it is dangerous when we shut out parts of our own realities.

Also, to collude with thinking of these people as inhuman monsters, is to collude with making kids more vulnerable.

Kids - and their parents - don't generally think of their local paedophile as the kind grandfather figure down the street, or the nice youth worker, or the friendly fella with the dog that all the kids love, or the nice man who comes into mum's life and makes her feel so special, and "he REALLY loves the kids - he is the BEST step-dad" - they think of him as a monster whom anyone can identify and keep off with a crucifix and some garlic.

Well, they ain't. They look just like you and me.

And - the more I get to know about them - the more I know that there, but for the grace of god, go I - and you.

Ack - what a diatribe...

Your damn guns.

Thanks, Deb, for both of your commends above.

Since I worked with abused, worked with imprisoned abusers, worked with abused and abusers in a psychiatric clinic and ...

Unfortunately, such can't be discussed with ... on this thread.