Art or thinly veiled kiddy porn?

[Alex Bragi]

Then you run into the same problem we will always have, whether its pictures of children or of paid adult women in bondage/torture images. If the person viewing those bondage/torture images becomes aroused to the point of committing a crime, who's responsible, the images or the aroused nut who cannot distinguish fantasy from reality?

ANY image, of any kind, can be construed as arousing to SOMEONE! Any story, especially on this site, could be considered inflammatory to some sicko. Should we shut down the internet? Close the libraries? Burn all the books and photographs, just to try to keep one sicko from going out of control? We might as well just lock ourselves up and throw away the keys.

Not the way I choose to live, thank you.

Yes, I agree completely. You're right, Thorne--absolutely 100% right. Why, even something as innocent as an advertisement for baby power could be misconstrued as sexual to some people. This issue, however, is more simply about a twelve year old girl who many feel has been sexually exploited in the name of art.

Putting aside the selfish wants and needs of adults who may enjoy viewing these photographs--for the sake of art or otherwise--and forgetting about what we, as adults, feel we are entitled to view or read in the form of pornography, will the girl herself at some time feel she has is she's been exploited? Having carefully read the responses here and given this a whole lot of thought, I think perhaps that's what's most important. Will she in years to come, as an adult, regret these photos? And, more specifically, regret having had these photos of her young body displayed so publically?

More importantly, and certainly more pertinent to this thread than whether or not we're all getting the full range of porn we feel we're entitled to, is the question of whether a twelve year old is old enough to make these kinds of decisions about her how body? A minor can't get a tattoo; work as topless bar maid, or pose for lad mags --actually there's a hell of a lot of things you can't do before you turn eighteen--and there's a damned good reason for that. So, is this really so different?

Oh, before anyone goes looking for said photos on the net, take heed of WW1warning because you certainly don't want "naked twelve year old girl" on your computer's Google history--and there's a damned good reason for that too, isn't there?

And, finally, while this is a good and interesting debate (thank you all), and I hope I haven't offended anyone here (so sorry if I have), this is an emotive topic for me, so I'm going to call it quits, and bow out of it. *ss*