Double Standards and a Paradox

I’ve recently read two NY Times articles titled “Dark Corners”, the first one focusing on distribution of questionable under-age photos over internet and the second one explicitly on pedophiles. I found especially the first one extremely interesting and informative – for example, there are parents out there making lots of money by selling their children’s images: a woman, who recently got jailed for 12 years, earned thousands of dollars per week for selling pornographic but clothed images of her daughter on the web. That is quite a heavy income and from there to minors making money for themselves, as investigated by the NY Times, is only a small step.

Why this is so interesting is because the line between legal and illegal, between tolerable and intolerable is getting even thiner with sites like this one allowing the same kind of non-nude pictures (that could be labeled as pornographic) to be published, shared, commented and rated – hypothetically only among young people.

The main difference between the two is obvious: one is meant for peers and the other for sex offenders. But what actually worries me is that the two will probably collide some day – or, if you want, pretty soon – and the possible outcomes vary from severely limiting young people’s capability of expression in one side to blossoming under-age (almost) porn industry on the other.

How to solve it – by leaving things liberal and unmoderated or by enforcing more strict rules? As always, balance is most likely the right answer. In this particular case, a more liberal approach that focuses on abusive responses rather than limiting everyone else has my vote.

 

There is another hypothetical situation I was wondering about – it is actually a paradox. What if for example I would make lots of “barely covered” photo sessions of myself at age of 10, then save them until I was over 21 and then sell them for a hefty price? Would I, a person who is selling his under-age photographs, be labeled as a criminal in this case? And if the answer is yes, for what – exploitation of a minor person called myself? This paradoxical situation is bound to happen sooner or later – and I can’t even imagine what could come out of it…