Another Case of Child Pornography

According to Maine's Bangor Daily News, a 15-year-old boy has been charged with downloading child pornography. There is no mention of the age of the children in the photos that were confiscated. Given the fact that the person charged with the crime is a "child" himself, it is possible that he was looking at sexually explicit pictures of persons his own age.

In the article David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Again Children Research Center is quoted as saying: "A large number of teens have said they have downloaded child porn (ed note: he does not mention the source of this data, but he and his colleagues are those responsible for reports such as the oft-quoted Second Youth Internet Safety Survey). Many do not realize it's criminal. [To them] it's sexual exploration...We also know many kids are taking sexual photos of themselves and friends and sending them to people. That is child pornography production and that's criminal as well."

This may be one of the first times an academic expert has stepped forward in the news to defend a minor's use of not specifically child pornography, but pornography in general.