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"with men of untruth i will not sit"
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Some of my thoughts
Related to country: Netherlands

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

All research is specific, whether you conduct ethnographic or questionnaire research, the first thing you do is describe a process or investigate a relationship among some variables in a population. To get from description to
theory is a big leap and involves asking " What causes the phenomenon in the first place?" The question I posed fellow students is; how far can we take the Freedom of Speech? And what is child pornography?

My purpose is also to show you the danger of using children as sex objects, and the general apathy or acceptance American and Dutch culture has toward these sexual portrayals of children through literature, art, and erotica. Art is not the core issue of my research, but this is a way to soften public resolve. Sexual portrayals of children are common in bookstores, sex shops, video stores, and in private collections, even museums, which may at times be described as art and thus legal. Because of the liberal stand the Netherlands takes on matters of sexual issues, as described later, there could be questionable material concerning young children and adolescents sold directly to anybody in sex shops or video stores anywhere in the country, or on the Internet, internationally, affecting all of us and our children.

It was important to see what was being done in the country about this subject because of its international impact on child sex trade. There was some questions raised to me about the validity of this research because a non-government organization (NGO) is not ‘scientific”. In fact I found that they are the one of the only sources that take an active role in combating the child sex trade, whether it be in a democratic “Western” country or poor country and their resources are based upon fact, and detailed research. As a student doing this solo research project in two countries I also faced obstacles such as funding, and professors willing to work with me on this subject.

Permission was granted by Dutch International NGO’s to conduct interviews, but was denied by GWAK, a new special police force in the Netherlands to combat child sexual exploitation, although I did interview a new special Child Pornography Unit on the telephone. The NGO’s that I have interviewed from were; ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes), Defense for Children International, Terres des Hommes, ChildRight, and a government supported scientific institute in the Netherlands; the Verwey Jonker Instituute. Almost all of these groups are a part of international organizations that work along with the United Nations as well as the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands, and especially with the Convention of the Rights of the Child. I think it is very important how each of these NGO’s look into the problem of child exploitation, namely child pornography in the Netherlands.


Feelings about the Subject

I have found in doing research many uninformed democratic citizens believe in the idea child pornography is protected by the Freedom of Speech. Child pornography is not protected by the Freedom of Speech, as children must deal with the permanency, longevity, and circulation of the record of the crime long after the act (106th Congress, 1996). This I also feel is true as in one case, that is close to me, the charges were dropped and the thousands were never found of one "collector" pedophile, who was never held in jail for using 4 female children for his own purposes.

In cultural anthropology, unobtrusive observation includes all methods for studying behavior where informants don't know that they are being studied. My methods involve unobtrusive questions or observations of American students and Dutch students at New Mexico State University, and in the Netherlands at Leiden University from August 1997 through May 2001.

Student reporter, Sylvia Carlson asked New Mexico State University students how they felt about child pornography on the internet and the accessibility of it. Some students felt aggression and anger and formed a group to block “censorship.” About five hundred students, the President of NMSU, and the Board of Regents openly expressed how they supported the accessibility of child pornography on the internet at NMSU.

Although my questions aimed at Dutch students were not printed in a school journal, their answers I feel remain important. Do Dutch citizens believe the number of children used in exploitation in Holland is a small number, and is this an important subject to them? When I moved to the Netherlands, my new Dutch housemates and I exchanged ideas about the problem of human rights that are violated in their country, namely child pornography. What follows is a summary of a heated discussion between us that provides an example of a typical social reaction about this subject;
Many of my housemates asked, “Why did you decide to come to the Netherlands?” My answer was, “Well, two years ago while doing research about the problem of child pornography in the United States, I discovered there was an amazing amount of child pornography coming from the Netherlands”.

My roommates replied, “You have been misinformed! There is no one in the Netherlands that is interested in child pornography. It is illegal here! You won’t find any child pornography here if you tried. You are wrong. Now don’t go back to the United States and print lies about our country”. Not to mention violence and aggression, on their part. They felt targeted.

During many discussions with fellow students and professors and while reading academic research in the United States and the Netherlands, I discovered several interesting opinions from democratic students/citizens besides persons with empathy for victims, I would like to share with you:

 The person researching the nature and extent of child pornography is actually interested in it for himself/herself!

 Children cannot be harmed by child pornography, it can actually benefit their sex life later as adults! "What about PTSD, depression, suicide, and the like?"

 Why didn’t I study in Belgium or Thailand? It is not a problem in the Netherlands. "Doesn't happen in my backyard?!Only a third world problem?"

 NGO work is not scientifically proven research and therefore not acceptable to use as a resource in an acedemic paper. "Hmm, really? Then get some scientists to work on it."


 Child pornography is not an acceptable topic to discuss and there are no classes that teach students about this topic. "Thats why there are 6 million images on the internet, because no one has a clue. Why can't we talk about it? Fear, anger, apathy?"

 If the Dutch were to make a hard rule about child pornography, the people actually interested in the material would riot and cause too many problems for the government.
"What about the victims? Don't you think they suffer? Don't they deserve justice?"

 People interested in child porno are the same as the people interested in members of the same sex (homosexuals or lesbians)! "Says, what official source?"

 The child pornography that is available now has not been recently made, but it is from the 1960's. "Then why does the Department of Justice say there are 6 million images of child pornography online today? People just stopped after 1969? Not in the cases I have read about and personally am affected by."

 Child pornography is protected by the Freedom of Speech. "Oh really. Tragically many people believe this. The sad case is trying to be made that child pornography is a human right of certain folks who "need" such things to keep them sane. Very dangerous thinking, indeed."


The nature and extent of child pornography is difficult to understand due to the lack of scientific data.Due to the lack of scientific data about the extent of child pornography in the Netherlands, or we may use the term, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, all of the complexities about this issue cannot be answered. This could also be said for the United States.

You may ask yourself if you stumble upon something questionable; is the photo is this child pornography, or adolescent pornography? Did this adolescent make a mature decision about her employment? Could she have been manipulated? Is this legal? I discovered typical photos found in the advertising sections of a popular adult magazine and teenage porn sold in magazine shops in the train stations in the Netherlands. My purpose will be to show the nature of erotica and child pornography and how difficult it is to define.

The United States also needs to take an example from the Netherlands and sign the Convention of the Rights of the Child. For such a large country there are such few places to report child pornography, and few police organizations that work specifically on the issue, as well as research centers for students who like myself, want to end this crime against our children and children's children.




May 26, 2009 | 6:52 PM Comments  0 comments

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Mootness
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

When Jeremy fell through the ice,
George put a gun to his head,
Erica overdosed a floor above me,
Darrin lay in my arms with white lips,
It could have been me.

Full of moot,
It could have been me, dead,
long ago.


The phonecalls, the threats,
the fists, and heavy voices.
Intimidations,
loose doorknobs and moot,
It could have been me.

Am I ready?
I don't know when I will go,
or where it will be,
full of moot
because it could have been me.

*m.t.*

March 3, 2009 | 1:39 PM Comments  0 comments

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