Earlier this month, the Ninth Investigation Brigade of the Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Taiwan chapter of the End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT) campaign joined forces to bust a Web site peddling child pornography CDs.
On July 5, the Hsinchu police Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Brigade cracked the case of a postal worker who had sexually molested a boy and then posted the photos on a Web site for others to download. Earlier in April, there was another case of a building superintendent who used money and candy to lure young girls and then molest them.
In the past, the Taiwanese thought of the word "pedophilia" as just a translation of a foreign term. But as these cases demonstrate, today it is not just a word. There are many children who have been harmed by sexual molestation, and child pornography is at the root of the problem.
Child pornography uses children under the age of 18 to produce lewd and sexually explicit photographs and movies. The reality is that the victims of this abuse are scarred for the rest of their lives. With the increased use of the Internet, the ease with which anyone can download, post, reproduce and link to these images has cast doubt on whether or not we will ever be able to completely eradicate them.
For example, if the six Aboriginal boys victimized by the previously mentioned postal worker were to be recognized from their online photos or see them for themselves, how would they be able to cope emotionally? Therefore we make this appeal: If you receive any e-mails or advertisements with child pornography, delete them immediately. We absolutely must not allow them to continue to be disseminated, nor let our mailboxes become their final destination.
Considerable foreign research has shown that more than half of all child molesters also possess child pornography. Large amounts of child pornography were found saved on the postal worker's computer. Some perpetrators use child pornography to lure minors and convince them to comply with their sexual requests.
In the US, the 1990 case of Osborne v. Ohio, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of an Ohio state law which penalized offenders for "mere possession" of child pornography after it had been challenged as a violation of free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment and the right to privacy guaranteed in the Fourth Amendment.
The court gave three reasons to justify its ruling: The abuse from child pornography is sufficient to cause lasting and chronic injury to the victim; the sexual arousal caused by viewing child pornography may incite child molesters to take real action to harm children; and breaking market demand will help curtail the production of child pornography. There is a self-evident need to penalize those who possess child pornography without a valid reason, not just to lower the instances of child molestation, but to check the growth of the market for child pornography.
Observing legislative trends around the world, it is apparent that more and more laws are emphasizing human rights. All democratic countries have already established laws punishing those who possess child pornography, but Taiwan lacks crucial legislation enforcing this universal norm.
This legislative lacuna is a serious flaw in Taiwan's legal system, which must be addressed as soon as possible. Therefore, ECPAT Taiwan strenuously recommends that Taiwan establish a new law to punish those who possess child pornography without a valid reason.
Liao Kui-fu is a researcher for ECPAT Taiwan.
Translated by Marc Langer
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