If people will cast their minds back, I downloaded child porn as part of an experiment to see how easy it is for someone to get the stuff. Now, I could easily be cautioned (although I'm probably not going to be) for downloading that stuff, and be put on the sex offenders registry...
So does that make me a paedophile? No, it really really doesn't. Far from it, in fact. Without being able to prove that I'm interested in children, no policeman, jury, or judge would be able to tell me that the fact that I've downloaded child porn means that I'm a paedophile. Okay there is the fact that the majority of the people who download it will be interested in it (sexually), but consider this; mortality rates as a result of paedophiles have remained a steady 6-7 a year, whereas straight adult rape is far far higher. So technically, you're more likely to rape someone after downloading normal porn, than you are after downloading child porn!
Another point that should be raised, is the fact that while the kiddy porn was in the shared folder of my Limewire P2P client, it got 1000s of hits, literally in the space of a few minutes. There's obviously a huge number of paedophiles out there, and many of them are probably living and working among us. Yet because nobody knows about them, nothing is done... yet child mortality rates are only 6-7 a year... surely if they're the dangerous psychopaths that they're made out to be then there'd be far more deaths, and way way more reported indecent stuff.
The western world is a changing place, that is now difficult to lead a normal life in, because everything is all wrapped up in cotton wool. It's all health and safety, child protection, sexual harassment, no win no fee compensation suits... people have got a heck of a lot more whiny, and government has bowed to a heck of a lot more environmentalists and extremists lately. It would certainly be weird to let paedophiles go free and do what they want, so that's not what I'm suggesting, but what I am saying is that maybe we should stop investigating everyone and being so paranoid. The way I look at it, the less we're aware of paedophiles, the better.
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