It is a quite light crime. It is the filming of child porn that breaks the law. The only crime in possession is that you are supporting the demand for it.
It is not a light crime. It is 'supporting the demand' for abusing children. Calling it a 'socially unacceptable private fetish' makes it sound like society is being intolerant.
I agree, the sick freaks who enjoy child pornography need rehabilitation and therapy (or in the predatorial cases - jailing), not people backing them up or diminishing the severity of their crime. The procuring and watching of child pornography is a truly foul and utterly despicable act.
goosefraba, you just repeated what I said. I would agree that society is intolerant of them. It is a socially unacceptable private fetish and that will not (and should not) change, but the stigma should be modified to a more compassionate stance. People with sexualities oriented towards children are
only criminals if they choose to offend children. People should recognise that fetishes exist in all people: people have foot fetishes, asian fetishes, homosexual fetishes, etc. When someone happens to have a fetish for children, it is unfortunate because the only way they can "get off" is by supporting something that will always be inherently illegal (consent for kids under 10 is impractical -- although Japan does it: no age of consent).
This situation reminds me of this quote:
"What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature." ? Voltaire
We should continue to apprehend those who participate in child abuse crimes, but we should not punish those who have a private fetish that has remained private for their whole lives. My teacher was one of them. Nine months in jail is not going to help anything, and if you think it will, you have a silly view of justice. Rehabilitation sounds better, I agree with enwiabe, but I wouldn't call them "sick freaks." I'd say they were dealt with a bad hand.
In retrospect, I should have said "socially incompatible fetish." It's incompatible with society because the very nature of it involves breaking the law.