Re: 3 Reasons child porn must be legalized [Link]

The article is worth reading through, but has its problems.

In the first section, he tries to insert the caveat, "some will try to argue that no one would get convicted since they had no intent." Well, you can't just blow off that argument. He does what so many poor debaters do - he tries to present the counterargument before it is made, and tries to make it look like the fact that he presented it first makes it invalid. The reality is that there is not a jury anywhere that would convict in the situation he provided (the accidental recording of a child-rape due to real-time futuristic "dash-cam glasses." Even in the most anti part of the U.S., where I live, I can't see it happening. You have to have intent to commit a crime, period. It is not just legal practice or precedent, it is written law.

The gray area that he was (poorly) trying to address was regarding accidental recording of, and thus legal possession of, illegal child pictures. The point that he failed to make, and that might have strengthened his argument, is that where the burden of proof of intent is supposed to fall on the prosecution, in the case of Possession of Child Pornography, the burden might potentially be improperly placed on the defendant. The defendant is NOT presumed innocent. And with a "witch hunt" mentality, the impropriety of the misplaced burden of proof would be ignored by many juries and judges.

The rest of the article is ok, though he still stretches some of the arguments too far, and the ignores the value in some of the better arguments. With a good debater, I would give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was trying to "Argue from the Absurd." But he is not a good debater... As an example of a good argument that he did not build on enough, the idea that child porn could help catch child molesters is real. There is hardcore porn circulating out there that has the perps' faces in plain view. With face searching computer technology such as Britain already uses on their streets, having the porn in circulation enhances the chances of catching the criminals. Also, catching them when they try to sell it or trade it.

He also demonizes Christians in the same way (though not "legally") as Christians demonize Pedos, lumping them ALL together and saying they are all the same. I am an example of the wrongness of such generalization - in both directions...