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Comment by vincnetas | Hacker News Reader

This might be unpopular opinion but catching people sharing CP images is like catching end users of drugs. Yes it's illegal but the real criminals are the ones producing drugs. But it's very difficult to get to them, so you just arrest end users.

Another side note is about near future when someone comes up with synthetic CP images, will they also be criminalised?

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It's not just unpopular, it's also wrong: when you use drugs, you are almost entirely harming yourself (leaving aside funding all sorts of illegal activities, just focusing on the act itself). When you propagate CSAM material, you are causing psychological harm to the victims, plus can cause them to physically harm themselves or get harmed by others. So you are a criminal, harming a victim as well.

You can read about this directly from a victim via this NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-ra...

How would a victim of CSA ever find out that I downloaded a particular file? Surely the harm there is caused by the distributor, not the consumer.

Conversely, when I use drugs, I'm paying someone, so I'm actually directly funding criminals. Depending on the country and the drugs, this is often putting cash in the hands of a very violent cartel.

You are correct, however vincnetas made the comparison between distributing CSAM and buying drugs, it is not aemreunal's fault, you are replying to the wrong person. A comparison that would make better sense would be to compare these in possession of CSAM and these that buy drugs.

Consumption encourages production.

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