Guest Author - Paula Petrie

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports approximately 20 new children appear on porn sites every month and over 3.5 million child pornography images have been identified by U.S. law enforcement alone.

The typical age of children had been between six and twelve years, but the profile is getting younger. More pictures of babies and toddlers are appearing on the net every day. And demand for pornographic images of babies and toddlers are said to be soaring. With the abuse to infants and young children more torturous and sadistic than ever. Police investigations have revealed that sexual racketeers even pose as baby sitters, abusing and filming babies while the parents are away.

The commercial business of child pornography over the Internet has been estimated at $20 billion annually worldwide, by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. And is said to be more than the combined annual revenue of ABC, NBC, and CBS.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says approximately 20% of Internet pornography involves children. One shocking survey suggests that about one-fifth of all rapes and one-half of the children molestations are being committed by youth. Adolescents ranging in age from 13-17 years. Generally, rapes are proportionately higher in states with higher pornography sales and lower in states with lower pornography sales.

Being sexually abused in childhood doesn’t automatically lead to sexually aggressive behavior. The number of incidents of abuse, the period of time elapsing before reporting the abuse, and how much family support is received all play a role. One third of convicted sex offenders have been exposed to domestic violence, but, at least half of the sex abusers were never sexually abused themselves. About half of the convicted sex offenders have trouble learning and a large percentage have some sort of psychiatric disorder, judgment, or impulse control issues.

Bare in mind, that all who deal in child pornography over the Internet are not pedophiles. Is this a situation that we are growing? Creating through mental abuse, our failing school system, and the increasing economic divide? We are in fact living in a time when kids are choking themselves to death for fun! We are responsible for protecting our young children but aren’t we also required to help break the succession of teens toward violence, drugs, and the often ignored, poor understanding or lack of compassion, toward sexual relations.

How does the proven addictive quality of pornography factor in with so much media attention given to sexual innuendo or suggestively reminding us that sex is an unsolved equation for most? Are we leaving an increasing number of young men so filled with hate, rage, and frustration, that they willing destroy our young?