They did, but it only existed on small scales then. The Internet drove the cost of production and distribution down to basically zero, so, as classical economics predicts, the amount of production exploded.

> The Internet drove the cost of production and distribution down to basically zero, so, as classical economics predicts, the amount of production exploded.

No, economics predicts that _use_ will explode if the cost is zero, but that's not a comment on production.

Pocket cameras have reduced the cost to record sexual abuse, but that's dwarfed by the ability to reproduce/ distribute those copies.

I don't think that means sexual abuse is more common. On every other metric we have, it appears sexual abuse is _less_ common.

No, they didn't. They still don't. Not having a victim on the other side of the case (possession of child porn, not production of child porn) gives judges an easy excuse (and no opposition) to sympathizing with the accused and suspending the sentence.

Child porn is just leverage to pry. We used to care as much about sending information about birth control through the mail. And with the modern movement to sexualize children as soon as possible, they might have to use another excuse in 20 years. "Terrorism" will always work, because it doesn't mean anything.

I believe this is the case, as unfortunate as it is.

The loudness of their voices in "protecting the children" when politicians are introducing new communications surveillance measures, with no mention of local, boots-on-the-ground, child protection services funding increases, just screams to me that they care about surveillance a lot and about protecting children not at all.

In that way the government represents the people. For every 9 people you meet screeching about how much they want to hunt a pedo and torture them, there's 1 person talking about actually helping children experiencing abuse (which is not always sexual, to the former group's disappointment)

These strategies have been called the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Infocalyp....