Study Shows Porn Reduces Child Abuse

News Article: Making Pornography More Accessible May Curb Child Abuse.

Whether pornography is an expression of free speech or a form of exploitation remains a hotly debated issue, and new research may only stir up the controversy further. Scientists led by Milton Diamond at the University of Hawaii found that easing access to sexually explicit material may help lower sexual abuse of youngsters. Diamond's group compared rates of various crimes, including sexual abuse, murders, assaults and thefts, both before and after the fall of the communist regime in the Czech republic.

Before a more liberal government gained power in the country in 1989, all forms of sexually explicit material, including magazines such as Playboy, were banned, and all nudity was considered pornographic. The new government, however, passed a law allowing some expressions of nudity, including child p*rn, and when Diamond and his group compared rates of child sexual abuse both before and after the communist regime was in power, they found that there were fewer cases of abuse after pornography became more accessible.

The data supports previous work that found similar trends when pornography laws were relaxed in Japan and Denmark. Coupled with the fact that rates of other crimes did not change in the same time period in the Czech Republic, Diamond speculates that the reason for the decline in child sexual abuse could be due to the fact that potential offenders were able to substitute child p*rn for (performing the actual) sexual acts themselves.

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:photos: I'm really not surprised by the decrease in sexual crimes as the availability of sexual material increased. Magazines and Internet porn offer a way to indulge the fantasy, without harming anyone in the process. Your thoughts?

Sorta raises the question of whether simulated CP (with models who are 18+) would do better at curbing child abuse than "regular" porn with older looking models.