Information Society Watch

December 15, 2007, Jerry Markon, Washington Post

The spectre of child pornography, which was deemed to be under control in the early 90s, has once again reared its ugly head via the Internet. In the USA, this has prompted federal action with emphasis on identifying and prosecuting people deemed to be paedophiles or showing the propensity for molesting children. This programme, which has imprisoned people who have downloaded explicit images of children, has been denounced by its critics as excessive. Prosecuting child pornography is a sensitive area of operation and raises questions about the degree of punishment being proportional to the offence. However, society must resolve such issues in order to provide protection to our children, who are the most innocent and vulnerable members of the community.

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