R v (1) GRAHAM WESTGARTH SMITH (2) MIKE JAYSON (2002)

[Andrew Brown]

On Friday, April 26, 2002, at 1:00:25 PM, Peter Gutmann wrote:

PG> It's been done in Europe, on a very large scale, over a period of about 10
PG> years, specifically during the time interval covering when porn (of any kind)
PG> was made legal and when specific types of porn were made illegal.

Excuse me, but where in Europe was this supposed to have happened? and
what sort of porn is supposed to have been involved? I actually lived
in Sweden, as a child, in the late Sixties, when the news kiosks in
Stockholm had eye-level cunts in their displays, (using my then eye
level as a benchmark). But even then child pornography was illegal,
and in Denmark too.

Other countries were always a great deal more restrictive. And I went
back to live in Sweden as an adult, when porn was much less freely
available, though still pretty open. Nothing like the statistics you
assert were mentioned in public debate then -- partly, presumably,
because child pornography had _never_ been legal. But if there had
been solid evidence that pornography diminished sex crimes, it would
certainly have been discussed in the papers I read every day.

PG> When all types of porn was legalised, child sex abuse dropped
PG> dramatically. When child porn was made illegal, child sex abuse
PG> increased again.

And supposing, for the sake of argument, that there was a rise in the
incidence of actual child sex abuse over this period in countries
where pornography was restricted. You would have to show that there
had been no similar rise over the same period in countries where the
regulation was different, but which were otherwise comparable.





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 Andrew                            mailto:alloneword@dial.pipex.com