Evidently the UK courts don’t know the difference between reality & fantasy.
Oddly, I was having a conversation with a coworker about this recently: Do computer generated images of minors count as child porn? My take: No, not at all.
The reason child porn is so offensive, to me, is the pain & suffering caused to the victim. That’s just plain wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. However, I don’t believe that ANY fantasy is wrong. Ever. It’s a fantasy — it’s not real. Granted, if you’re feeling a strong urge to act on a fantasy that will cause actual harm to someone, you probably need to talk to a therapist of some sort. But if you’re a reasonably normal, healthy adult and are perfectly capable of differentiating between reality and fantasy… fill your boots.
But this guy wasn’t arrested for committing a crime. He was arrested for maybe thinking about something that offends a lot of people, that might lead to an actual crime down the road. Despite there being no quantifiable evidence that thinking about it will lead to the act. And quite frankly, as someone with a pretty raunchy porn collection myself (all legal, staged, & consenting to the best of my ability) I can honestly say that it’s the fantasy that is arousing. For example, I have a lot of staged force porn. And yet, there isn’t anything even remotely attractive about the idea of real force. Fantasy & reality are two TOTALLY different subjects, and the idea that someone could be arrested for thinking “bad things”, with absolutely no intention of making the fantasy a reality is …pretty scary.
Here’s an interesting summary as well.
Luckily, I don’t think I have to worry about this too much in Canada. In R v. Sharpe, a man (Robin Sharpe) with both literature and photos was charged with possession of child pornography. The pictures (real, offensive, and illegal) stood, and he spent 16 months in prison for them, the written works didn’t.
I’m pretty pleased with this. Sharpe argued that because he’s attracted to young boys, he has the right to possess child pornography. I’d disagree, because the rights of the young boys in question trump the rights of the adult. But for the written works? There’s no crime there. It’s words on paper. Nobody was hurt by it. Leave the kids alone, but fantasize away. (And, again, maybe see a therapist if you think this might transcend fantasy into reality…)