Child Pornography - Home | National Rapporteur on Trafficking in ...

54
<strong>Child</strong> PornograPhy First report oF the Dutch NatioNal rapporteur
instead of ‘pornography’. After all, the word ‘pornography’ seems to suggest that it is glamorising
the obscene content in question. 146 This approach, which involves placing the term ‘child
pornography’ within the context of abuse as much as possible, is also evident in the response of
the European Parliament to the proposal for a new EU directive to combat sexual abuse, sexual
exploitation of children and child pornography, submitted by the European Commission in 2010. 147
<strong>Child</strong> pornography is also regarded as a ‘souvenir’ of the sexual humiliation, molestation, abuse
or assault of a child, for example in the United States of America. 148 It is also referred to in terms
of ‘child pornographic exploitation’ in order to indicate that child pornography concerns a form of
child exploitation. 149 Finally, the literature also employs the terms ‘child exploitation material 150 ’
and ‘child erotica’ 151 for all material that is not child pornography as such but makes reference to
children and also serves a sexual purpose for the user of this material.
Legislation in other countries
<strong>National</strong> legislation concerning child pornography varies between countries and certainly across the
world. That indicates that countries may view the phenomenon of child pornography on the Internet in
different ways, and may also have different views with regard to the severity and extent of this phenomenon.
For example, according to the Special <strong>Rapporteur</strong> of the UN Human Rights Council, the manner
of dealing with aspects such as age limits and subjects such as virtual child abuse material and grooming
vary from country to country. 152 Because of the fact that the Internet provides a worldwide environment
for the distribution of child abuse material, it is very important to achieve legal harmonisation of legislation
between countries and it is possible that the problem will become greater if countries do not
tackle sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. 153 An initial examination of responses to
questionnaires from 45 countries of the Council of Europe in March 2011 also showed a number of gaps
in national legislation with regard to child pornography. For example, some national legislation does
not adequately define the various forms of sexual exploitation of children, or the phrasing is too general,
146 Akdeniz, 2008, p.11, referring to Save the <strong>Child</strong>ren Europe, which states that: “The term “child pornography”
[…] undermines the seriousness of the abuse. It also tends to oversimplify what is a very complex social problem.” Save
the <strong>Child</strong>ren Europe, 2006, p.4. See also www.ecpat.nl (viewed 4 July 2011).
147 See Proposal of the European Commission for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the
Council on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography,
COM(2010)94 final, 29 March 2010, p.10: ‘<strong>Child</strong> pornography, which consists of images of child sex
abuse’. Where the European Commission refers to ‘sex abuse images’, the European Parliament seems
to prefer the term ‘sex abuse material’; Draft report on the proposal for a Directive of the European
Parliament and of the Council on combating sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child
pornography, repealing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA, 2010/0064 (COD), 24 January 2011, p.13.
148 ICMEC, 2010, p.2. See also Adler, 2001, pp.213-214:”[…] child pornography is a subset of the larger problem of
child sexual abuse and[…] the two are inextricable”.
149 See for example Von Weiler et al., 2010.
150 Moran, 2010, p.70.
151 Lanning, 2010; Quayle & Taylor, 2001.
152 This also applies with regard to punishment, legal liability of ISPs, compensation for victims and the
protection of their privacy. Report of the Special <strong>Rapporteur</strong> on the sale of children, child prostitution
and child pornography (Ms. Najat M’jid Maala), UN Doc A/HRC/12/23, 13 July 2009, §53 et seq.
153 Akdeniz, 2008, p.8.