Is the media to blame for child sex victims?

• Author: Davidson, Mark

The U.S.'s reaction to sexual exploitation of children is a classic case of ambivalence. Americans react with sermonizing and smirking, condemning and condoning, punishing and promoting.

On the one hand, they support tougher punishment. For instance, the Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, in June, 1997, upheld a wave of state laws allowing authorities to keep predatory pedophiles incarcerated beyond the expiration of their sentences, in indefintely long "civil confinement," if they seem to pose a continuing threat of committing such crimes again. California has mandated chemical castration for recidivist sex offenders and has adopted New Jersey's Megans Law. The controversial legislation, named for seven-year-old rape-murder victim Megan Kanka, allows police to notify residents when someone who has served time for child molesting moves into their neighborhood.

On a national level, the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 radically broadened the 1984 scope of Federal child-porn legislation. It mandates up to five years in prison for possession and up to 30 years in prison for producing computer-genearted simulations of child pornography or "any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video image or picture...where...such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct." That possibly unconstitutional law was adopted on the grounds that even pretended child-porn might be used to seduce kids or incite pedophiles.

On the other hand, Americans support multi-million-dollar, multi-media activities that actually promote the seduction of children and the incitement of pedophiles. The nation must face the disturbing implications of the fact that parents -- the very people who should be the most outraged by the sexual exploitation of youngsters -- have been the principal supporters of hundreds of media-hyped children's "beauty pageants." These pageants commercially flaunt kids' bodies, often converting preteen and preschool girls into sex puppets adorned with lipstick, mascara, false eyelashes, bleached hair, high heels, and satin-and-rhinestone gowns and professionally coached in showgirl postures and movements.

Only after the Christmas, 1996, sexual molestation and strangulation of one of these pathetically painted "beauty queens," six-year-old "Little Royal Miss" JonBenet Ramsey of Boulder. Colo., did the press bother to seek moral guidance on this issue. For example, Thew New York Times...