The sex doll case — and the problem with Canada's child porn law

iPolitics Insights

Published

Thursday, March 9th, 2017
Megan Ross

Published

Thursday, March 9th, 2017

Broad child pornography laws do not protect children from pedophiles. When child pornography laws are both vague and broad, they have the unintended consequence of saturating our culture with the spectacle of the sexualized child — and ‘normalizing’ the pedophile.

On March 12, 2013, the provincial police service in Newfoundland conducted what they call a “controlled delivery” of a mail-order package containing a sex doll — made to look like a child — to a 51-year old man. The package was discovered in a mail processing centre in Toronto. The man was arrested on four counts related to child pornography the moment he accepted the package, which he never opened. His case resumed on February 14, 2017.

I feel repulsed by the fact that these dolls exist. The descriptions of their anatomy and accessories are disturbing for me to read. But I am equally disgusted by the position this broad and vague law puts society in.

Because ‘child pornography’ is defined so broadly under Canadian law, when the law is zealously enforced it results in some novel sexual depictions of children getting caught within its web. Once this new, bizarre, sexualized image of a child is caught by child pornography laws, an entire apparatus is set in motion which becomes enthralled and obsessed with this new image of a sexualized child. In this case it’s a ‘child sex doll’ that will become the subject of our perverse collective fascination as the case progresses through the courts in the coming months.

The point I wish to make about this case is a point media reports have so far missed — and I expect will keep missing — as the trial progresses. Rather than asking whether child sex dolls should be legal in Canada, we need to be asking why these child pornography laws are having an effect the exact opposite of what they were enacted to do.

open quote 761b1bThe media reports ask whether there is a social utility to child sex dolls. The laws against child pornography are resulting in pedophilia being normalized in the media — the opposite of their intended effect.

The problem is that broad laws driven by disgust are blind to the actual consequences of their operations. Let’s take the case of the child sex doll as an example of how broad child pornography laws, zealously enforced, have perverse consequences.

Child pornography laws are broad in order to protect children from material that depicts them being sexually assaulted, or that might encourage a pedophile to commit a sexual assault in the future. This second category results in perverse implementation, despite good intentions. The most heinous category of child pornography consists of those images depicting a sexual assault in process, which can haunt victims for years after the assault. We can all agree this is a terrible crime, one which continues to traumatize the victim so long as the images exist.

This is the crime I want our law enforcement to focus on. Not dolls.

Child pornography laws should not be broad and vague because the result is policing and judicial resources being spent on determining how far the definition of child pornography can stretch, rather than on the horrible — and very real — harms being committed against real children.

It is also directly normalizing pedophilia by spreading the idea of a ‘child sex doll’ across newsfeeds all over Canada. Unfortunately, we can only expect more of these disturbing media reports in the near future, as the case resumes.

I have no interest in taking a position on the so-called “virtuous pedophile” movement. My point is much narrower: A law intended to keep pedophiles from obtaining images of sexualized children is resulting in media reports directing them to the company that makes these dolls. The laws are doing exactly the opposite of what they were intended to do. The media reports also ask whether there is a social utility to child sex dolls, canvassing arguments that these dolls might actually have a social benefit. So the laws against child pornography are resulting in pedophilia being normalized in the media — the opposite of their intended effect.

Rather than preventing child sexual abuse, these laws have resulted in media reports asking us to decide for ourselves whether we think latex representations of a vagina is tantamount to child pornography. The laws are operating to saturate our media with the image of the child sex doll. As Professor Adler argues, “The legal tool we designed to liberate children from sexual abuse threatens us all, by constructing a world in which we are enthralled — anguished, enticed, bombarded — by the spectacle of the sexualized child.”

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