Internet Child Pornography and the Law

Book excerpt: This book provides a critical assessment of the problem of internet child pornography and its governance through legal and non-legal means, including a comparative assessment of laws in England and Wales, the United States of America and Canada in recognition that governments have a compelling interest to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. The internet raises novel and complex challenges to existing regulatory regimes. Efforts towards legal harmonization at the European Union, Council of Europe, and United Nations level are examined in this context and the utility of additional and alternative methods of regulation explored. This book argues that effective implementation, enforcement and harmonization of laws could substantially help to reduce the availability and dissemination of child pornography on the internet. At the same time, panic-led policies must be avoided if the wider problems of child sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation are to be meaningfully addressed.