Jenkins tackles a very difficult subject in a very professional manner. As Dennis Littrell suggested, Jenkins realizes that the 'trap the end user' approach will never even slow down the growth of this disturbing industry, and some of the more Draconian measures being suggested in some circles would only damage the freedom to surf of normal everyday users.
One point that many people might be unaware of is the fact that child pornography often involves children under five, as Jenkins suggests. Clearly this flies in the face of 'normal' sexual and reproductive urges, whereby males are only supposed to respond to females who are in the throes of puberty and beyond.
While it is certainly true to say that mere child nudity does not equate to child pornography, a common tactic of borderline sites is to place 'trigger' pictures in with legitimate 'lolita-esque' nude photos, which then lead to screens or sites that appear to offer a portal to an actual child pornography site, rather than plunging people straight into one.
The problem with writing books of this nature is that the Law is often in a state of flux. One of biggest 'gray' areas in terms of legality is the use of artificially generated/cgi child pornography. The 'pro' arguments suggest that as no children are being harmed or exploited, it doesn't qualify as child pornography. The 'contra' arguments suggest that it still involves images of adults having sex with children. At the time of writing this review, I believe it is still techincally legal.
Some years ago, a man was arrested for some sketches he made of naked adults and children embracing, without any specific suggestion of sexual contact. The counter argument to the prosecution stance made the point that drawing a sexual fantasy (or now, creating it with a computer graphics package) rather than merely thinking the same thoughts, should not be illegal, unless any attempt was being made to circulate it/them. The point being that this transition from a thought image to a cgi image, borders on the question of the Thought Crime of George Orwell's 1984, and the Inquisition logic of 'If she floats she's a witch and if she drowns, she's innocent'.
Jenkins has some solid ideas, such as monitoring message boards and the infrastructure by which the sub-net is able to operate, rather than setting up fake sites to lure in Joe Idiot who's just had a few beers, and thinking that such actions will ever impact the industry.
One of the biggest factors in the quantum growth of the 'CP' industry is the availability of white, Eastern European child victims. Previously, white children were never available in such numbers, which seems to have been a natural limiter on certain areas of this darkest of growth industries.
Sadly, where ever there is poverty, there will always be exploitation, and the online CP industry is just one part of a bigger picture - of a World and a people gone wrong, and the failure of the human race to love each other in the face of all our differences.
Yes, read this and be concerned about the sexual exploitation of children, but never forget that the greater obscenity is that 34,000 children DIE every day throughout the same world in which some rich people have gold-plated bath taps.
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