Many a teen has clicked here and there, while exploring porn on the net, and found themselves on a child porn site. This often happens inch by inch -- curiosity leads to looking at girls who appear to be same age peers and then comes another click of the mouse and low and behold there is a younger child. The process of exploring quickly turns into to a crime as various law enforcement agencies are either monitoring these web sites or they have created a child porn site to catch those who are down loading porn or creating porn.
Once enforcement is alerted they typically will raid the house of the teen -- guns drawn, ready to seize all property that my contain child porn images: computer, smart phone, Ipod, camera, I pad. District attorneys are not only very determined to prosecute teen cases, but part of their strategy is to ask the Courts to require the teen to register for the remainder of their lives as a sex offender.
To be sure the work of law enforcement to find those who traffic in child porn is critical to public safety -- but the problem for the Courts is how to properly punish a teen who has viewed child porn images who is not a pedophile. The consequences of a teen viewing child porn will be the subject of another blog -- what is important to think about now is the risk that teens take whenever they explore sexual images on the net. This is why it is crucial to have clear guidelines about porn and to enforce these guidelines every day by monitoring where teens are traveling on the net -- computer, smart phone, Ipad, etc.
It is also very important for teens to understand that law enforcement agencies are "out there" in "cyber space" and one of many negative consequences may be a life time registration as a sex offender. Click, click, click, crime. It is that easy!
Bottom line: check where your child "is" on the net everytime they are on the net.
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