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Notes -
Can anyone explain to me why the standard arguments for criminalizing consumption of child pornography don't generalize also to the consumption of terrorist "beheading videos" that were very popular several years back?
The revictimization argument (that consuming child pornography revictimizes the victim) obviously applies also to beheading videos. (Some might argue that as the beheaded are deceased, they can't be victimized again, so such videos should be permitted— which would lead to the absurd conclusion that a CP video that also depicts murder of the victim should be permitted, since, by their own logic, dead children can't be revictimized!)
likewise for the argument "by consuming it you incentivizes the further production of such videos and hence further victimization".
as for the argument that "consuming such videos makes one more likely to commit the crime depicted in them", I can see some intuitive plausibility in the idea that consumption of CP is more likely to turn the consumer into a criminal than consumption of beheading videos. If I know nothing else about someone X except that X consumes CP, then other things being equal I find myself perceiving X to be more dangerous, and more disinclined to associate with X than if I know nothing about X except that X consumes beheading videos. However I do wonder how much of this asymmetry is due to the fact that consumption of CP is already a crime, so it's difficult to imagine someone who does it but who doesn't have dangerous criminal tendencies.
Isn't the primary difference that there is no commercial market for beheading videos? Beheading videos are mostly produced and circulated for free release by terrorist groups. Child pornography that circulates is often produced or circulated for the purpose of either selling access to it, or for the purpose of bartering access to it in exchange for other child pornography. There is no argument that beheading videos lead to more beheadings, there is a plausible argument that allowing child pornography leads to more child pornography.
Sometimes footage of people being killed finds its way into commercial releases:
Has it ever even been alleged that a murder was committed for the purpose of filming it?
Maybe some of the Livestream killers we've seen?
Terrorism would lose its purpose, if it didn't receive media coverage. Yet journalists reporting on crime committed by criminals seeking notoriety aren't prosecuted.
Consider also that the authorities with the power to do so are often uninterested in tamping down on ISIS snuff films.
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