Dear Colleague,

Combating child pornography and the sexual abuse of children is a key priority for law enforcement both nationally and internationally.  However, in recent years, there have been attempts to water down the legal standards used to prosecute child pornographers.  Some of these efforts may seem benign or even laudable, such as using terminology that emphasizes that child pornography depicts abuse, but as Stefano Gennarini, J.D., S.T.B. explains in this Definitions article, these changes in terminology mask a worrying erosion of the standard long accepted as a matter of international law.

This article provides an in-depth discussion of the debate around the terms "child pornography" versus "child sexual abuse material" and explains how these debates have recently come to a head as the UN adopts a new treaty on cyber-crime.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Oas, Ph.D.
Director of Research

It has become common in recent years to use the term "child sexual exploitation/abuse material" to refer to child pornography, but the new term was never coextensive or synonymous with the term “child pornography,” which has a long history and an established legal definition. The discrepancy between the two terms was brought to light in the negotiation of a new United Nations treaty against cyber-crime. The treaty scraps the notion of child pornography entirely and replaces it with a new variable standard for prosecution tied to "child sexual exploitation/abuse" that is riddled with loopholes. The new treaty would expressly legalize some forms of child pornography long considered illegal under existing standards, including virtual child pornography and sexting, opening the door to legal expressions of pedophilia. This Definitions paper will describe how the term "child sexual exploitation/abuse material" has been used in UN policy in recent years and the dangers of the new provisions of the new United Nations convention against cyber-crime. Read more >>>