Danger lurking in the comments section

This article initially caught my eye because it comes from Fontana, CA, so you might say it hits close to home. A man was arrested on child pornography charges. Hundreds of images and videos were reportedly seized from his home. I see stories like this often and like many I typically feel a mix of anger and sadness over such news. This time however, I was perhaps even more bothered by the comment made in response to the article.

Someone calling him/herself Empirical1, posted a pathetic attempt to defend child pornography, claiming to have empirical evidence that the production and distribution of child abuse images was not harmful to kids. I was about to start picking apart his post and writing about the fact that almost every sentence is riddled with inaccuracies but then I discovered what may be an even bigger problem.

Yes, believe it or not it gets worse.

I wanted to learn more about the web link that was given in the comment. I suspect that it probably leads to one of those groups that attempts to defend pedophilia but I didn’t want to follow the link for fear that malware might flood my computer with child abuse images. So I googled “what is #####.net (I won’t repost the actual link here). What I soon learned is that some person or group has been copying and pasting this same exact reply in comments sections of similar stories all over the internet. The poster does not always go by Empirical1, Apparently there are several different names used but the reply is always the same and all of the examples I saw were responses to stories about someone arrested for or convicted of possessing child pornography.

My concern is that this nonsense might be taken seriously by some readers. Even if only a small fraction of them are willing to entertain the idea that this commenter’s claims are true, it opens a door for more children to be harmed. Make no mistake, the production and distribution of child abuse is harmful. It hurts most, if not all, of the children involved and indirectly, it may even harm your children.

Real research has shown that viewing child porn is an even more reliable indicator of pedophilia than is child molestation (Seto, Cantor & Blanchard, 2006). The idea that “just looking at pictures or videos is somehow, not that bad” can’t hold up under any amount of scrutiny. Unfortunately, many readers may not scrutinize the things that they read. “After all, they can’t put it on the internet if it’s not true. Right?”

http://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/fontana-man-arrested-on-child-pornography-charges/article_908ac690-ef7f-11e5-b81e-9bfdc9f07013.html

Seto, M. C., Cantor, J. M., & Blanchard, R. (2006). Child pornography offenses are a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115(3), 610-615. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.115.3.610