Noun

Singular child pornography

Plural uncountable

child pornography (uncountable)

1. Pornographic material depicting minors.

Child pornography (also known as child abuse images ) refers to images or films depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child; as such, child pornography is a visual record of child sexual abuse. Abuse of the child occurs during the sexual acts which are photographed in the production of child pornography, and the effects of the abuse on the child (and continuing into maturity) are compounded by the wide distribution and lasting availability of the photographs of the abuse.

Child pornography is illegal in most nations, and carries severe penalties in almost all Western societies, but there are some countries that do not have relevant criminal statues in place. A large-scale movement is working to globalize the criminalization of child pornography, including major international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Commission, and others.

In common usage and for research purposes, child pornography refers to images of prepubescent children, and does not include post-pubertal teenage minors. But legal definitions generally refer to a wider range, including sexual images involving a minor or computer-generated images that appear to involve a minor. Most possessors of child pornography who are arrested are found to possess images of prepubescent children; possessors of pornographic images of post-puberty minors are less likely to be prosecuted, even though those images also fall within the statutes.

Child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry and among the fastest growing criminal segments on the internet. Producers of child pornography try to avoid prosecution by distributing their material across national borders, though this issue is increasingly being addressed with regular arrests of suspects from a number of countries occurring over the last few years. NCMEC claims that around 20 % of all pornography contains children.

Child pornography is viewed and collected by pedophiles for a variety of purposes, ranging from private sexual uses, trading with other pedophiles, preparing children for sexual abuse as part of the process known as "child grooming", or enticement leading to entrapment for sexual exploitation such as production of new child pornography or child prostitution.