Child pornography

Child pornography comprises images and descriptions of children being sexually abused and tortured. In fact, many jurisdictions use the term “child abuse images” because that describes more accurately what child pornography is all about: the torture and abuse of children for sexual gratification and profit.

Child pornography is a highly organised, multimillion-dollar industry, profiting from the abuse of children all over the world. And the Internet is the preferred medium for its distribution, although mobile phones are increasingly being used – both for the creation and the distribution of images.

Every child who has access to the Internet, either via a computer or a mobile phone, is a potential victim of paedophiles and child abusers.

Paedophiles and child abusers use child pornography:
to groom and seduce children by lowering their inhibitions into accepting sex with adults as “normal, acceptable and pleasurable” acts and that “everybody is doing it”;
to instruct children on how to perform specific sexual acts;
to trade and exchange collections of child pornography, thus stimulating demand for more child pornography; and
to blackmail and threaten children into silence about what is being done to them.

Source: http://www.fpb.org.za/anti-child-porn/cyber-safety#what-is-child-pornography