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Except that the primary question here is the banning or lolicon, drawings of fake children. If the marginal low-value user you're deterring is exclusively looking at drawings while the high-value users look at real CP then you're not actually accomplishing anything by reducing the marginal users. Assuming the goal is to prevent exploitation of real children, rather than preventing perverts from getting off because they're gross.
The argument that actually matters here is whether lolicon acts as as gateway to real CP, converting marginal users into higher-value over time, or as a substitute that reduces real CP use/production. I can think of reasonable arguments in both directions, but am not really sure which is really true.
No, the primary question is whether this is behavior that we as a society want to see normalized. "loli" is just the thin edge of the wedge for those who want to add a 'P' to LGBTQ, and get their stripe on the pride flag.
I don't see any meaningful distinction between the pedos and anyone else on the LGBTQ flag except the potential exploitation and harm of actual children. They're weird sexual fetishes that make the individual happy if they can fulfill it, but strays from the biological purpose of actual reproduction, and disgusts 90%+ of the population who don't share that fetish.
My stance on non-offending pedos, ones who look at drawings of cartoon children but would never harm a child in real life, is basically the same as for anyone else with a weird fetish: keep it to yourself. Do whatever you want alone in your bedroom, but I don't want to hear about it or have you mainstream it. Stay out of public, don't go on parades about it. But this doesn't require banning them from all art websites, just have a strong tagging/filtering system so normal people don't have to see it unless they opt in.
But I think it very much matters when actual children are involved, because that is evil behavior with massive harm. So the distinction is incredibly important, and I think is the most important aspect of this whole issue. People's fetishes and pride flags matter a little, but they matter less than violent harm done to children. In so far as "normalizing" loli art will lead to a slippery slope to pedos getting accepted to LGBTQ and this later slipping into normalizing actual harm to children, this matters. But the second step in that process is the primary question I'm concerned with: does loli art actually gateway towards real CP or physical acts? Because if not then the question of loli-pedos getting into LGBTQ or not doesn't matter because they won't slip further.
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Something can be legal without being normalised.
E.g. It's not criminal to be into scat but people really don't talk about how much they love shit.
In any case, making it easier for pedos to be addicted to porn seriously lowers the odds of them doing something harmful, just as porn use lowers RL sexual activity.
In addition, empirical data from Denmark and Czech Republic where CP was legal for a time make it look like this is true.
Yes, that would be the current status quo. While many (including myself, and the governing board at Mastercard it seems) find it sketchy as all get out and want nothing to do with it, it remains legal in the eyes of the government.
This the central question underlying this whole discussion is about whether it's fair to treat gore and loli/CP differently from more "vanilla" sorts of porn, ie whether it should be normalized.
Until we can fix the pedo issue at the root ( prevent the developmental disorder causing it), letting pedos watch porn is probably the best idea.
I mean, imagine how horny people would be if the only porn available was something they didn't care for at all.
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