Child pornography

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According to Article 2, Clause C of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Child pornography means “any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities, or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes”.

It should be noted that according to Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is “every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”.

In Peru, since 2001, child pornography is considered part of the sexual crimes described by our Criminal Code, which under Article 183 A states that: "anyone who owns, promotes, manufactures, distributes, displays, offers, commercializes, publishes, imports or exports, by whatever means, or in any object, book, publishing, image, video or audio, or produce a live show, that includes pornographic material using underage children” will be committing a crime.

Factors which facilitate and promote its growth and proliferation on the Internet
  • The supposed anonymity provided by the new Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
  • The few or null possibilities of fully identifying the true identity of the person sending, viewing or downloading child pornography material usually using technological tools such as: instant messaging (Whatsapp, BBM, Messenger, etc.), participation in forums and communities, file sharing programs or P2P (Kazzaa, I Mesh, Ares, Edonkey, Emule, Overnet, etc.) and different services of virtual data storage or clouds (OneDrive, CloudOn, Dropbox, etc.)
  • How fast many software applications can be acquired (and in many cases for free) and how easy they are to use, even by children.
  • The cutting-edge technology (digital cameras, smartphones, webcams) which keeps offering smaller and easier to carry equipment which do not need complex processes anymore to be used.
  • The bureaucracy of the Internet providing companies when replying to requests of police authorities for identification of users IP.
  • High profitability involved nowadays with child exploitation and pornography. Child sexual commerce results in higher profits than illegal drug or arms traffic. It has been calculated than child pornography alone generates 12 thousand million dollars in profits for organized crime.
Repercussions of child pornography
On one side, it is the reason why thousands of underage boys and girls are sexually exploited all around the world, using them to make all kind of photographs and videos that go from showing their bodies to rape and torture. On the other side, it harms even more children since it is constantly encouraging their consumers to make their “fantasies” true. Many of these pedophiles and pederasts end up creating new pornographic material with other children.
Important data to keep on mind
  • 30% of the consumers of Internet child pornography end up recreating what they see in those contents (Source: American Psychiatric Association).
  • 20% of the pornographic material on the Internet shows minors. (Source: RCPI – Perú).
  • 1 of every 5 pornographic photos on the Internet shows sexual abuse to a minor. (Source: RCPI – Perú).
  • There are about 5 million of Internet addresses with child sexual material. Approximately 2 million of those offer free access. (Source: RCPI – Perú).
  • Crimes related to distribution, promotion and sale of Internet Child Pornography represent 50% of the crimes committed online. (Source: INTERPOL, XVII World Meeting).

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