Letters to the Editor

They called me a child pornographer I took some photos of my kids naked on a camping trip. A drugstore employee called the police -- and my family's life became a living hell. By Jody Jenkins [2006-07-18]

• Child Pornography...

  I work part time at an adult bookstore. It's a pretty cool place, with a broad scope of literature which could be described as "counter culture". Books on piercings, tatoos, underground comics, and a significant collection of pornography. We cater to all tastes, selling books which feature erotica of all kinds.

  We also carry a modest selection of DVDs and videos which covers a broad selection including japanese anime style porn to Bettie Page pin-up stuff. Recently, I had an older man come in and purchase a couple videos we had which I was totally unfamiliar with.

  They were nudist colony videos, and I think they they were from Europe. Initially, I thought it an odd quirk.

  "This guy is into nudists. OK. Nothing wrong with that."

  But then I realized, it's the only way to legally obtain naked pictures of children. In fact, that's the main reason that the store carries it. They're nudist families, on camping excursions, and playing games, and doing things that any normal family does, just doing it without clothes.

  When I came to that realization, just as the man was leaving, it made me feel kind of horrible. But then something else occured to me.

  Let's assume that this customer was a pedophile, and he was sexually aroused by children. That is not a crime, in an of itself. People are allowed to be aroused by anything. We may not like it. We may not agree with it. We most certainly don't want it for ourselves, but there's no law against thoughts or feelings.

  The children in these videos are not being subjected to any harsh treatment. They're with their families, doing fun activities (I think one of them has them river rafting, while another is like baseball or something), and enjoying themselves. They're safe, not being mistreated, and are among their friends and families.

  So, what's wrong with a man utilizing that material for his own enjoyment? There's no victim here. Isn't that a far better result than him lingering around playgrounds or the like?

  The reason that child obscenity laws are in place isn't because the world thinks children should always be clothed, but rather because we want to protect children from being taken advantage of, and mistreated.

  I guess what I'm saying is, why isn't child services looking at these photos and saying, "These children aren't being abused. They aren't being mistreated. That aren't being taken advantage of."

  -- Linsel Greene (Portland, OR)
  [Read Linsel Greene (Portland, OR)'s other letters]
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