Police criticise Christian groupís child porn policy
-25/02/05
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has publicly criticised the call by a Christian group for non-prosecution of those accused of what they consider ëlesserí offences involving accessing child pornography on the internet.
The Churches Child Protection Agency (which, in spite of its name, is an autonomous group, not an official agency of the national denominations or of recognised ecumenical bodies) made the call for a change of official policy some weeks ago, and renewed it today. They believe that deeper problems of abuse are pushed underground by the current approach.
As reported previously on Ekklesia, the idea is for users of internet child pornography to escape criminal charges if they hand their computer porn over to police and agree to psychiatric treatment.
The proposal was first put forward in 2003 by deputy director of child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, Donald Findlater. He said the move would encourage offenders to come forward for treatment and possibly prevent them going on to abuse children in real life.
However Stewart Hyde of ACPO has contested this view. Disputing the idea of ëminorí or ëlesserí child pornography access offences, he said: ìThese are pictures of children who have been abused and sexually torturedî and those using them are legitimating and funding the trade in abused children. They should face prosecution and know that this will happen if they are caught.
Hyde also expressed the concern that the Christian groupís proposals would have the effect of reducing the culpability of child pornography offenders. He challenged CCPA to provide evidence that its proposals would have a demonstrably positive effect, and indicated that no such evidence had yet been made available.
Specialists within the churches expressed concern to Ekklesia about the possible impact of CCPAís stance on the child pornography question, and they stressed its unofficial status.
CCPA has been applauded for its other work with local churches, and particularly the Black Majority churches. But on this issue it has been accused of being naive.