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this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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Good arguments. I think I am convinced that both cases should be illegal.
If the pictures are real they probably increase demand, which is harmful. If the person knew, then the action therefore should result in jail and forced therapy.
If the pictures are not, forced therapy is probably the best option.
So I guess it being illegal in most cases simply to force therapy is the way to go. Even if it in one case is "victimless". If they don't manage to plausibly seem rehabilitated by professionals, then jail time for them.
I would assume (but don't really know) most pedophiles don't truly want to act on it, and don't want to have those urges. And would voluntarily go to therapy.
Which is why I am convinced prevention is the way to go. Not sacrificing privacy. In Norway we have anonymous ways for pedophiles to seek help. There have been posters and ads for it a lot of places a year back or something. I have not researched how it works in practice though.
Edit: I don't think the therapy we have in Norway is conversion therapy. It's about minimizing risk and helping deal with the underlying causes, medication, childhood trauma etc. I am not necessarily convinced that conversion therapy works.
Therapy is well and good and I think we need far more avenues available for people to get help (for all issues). That said, sexuality and attraction are complicated.
Let me start by saying I am not trying to state there is a 1:1 equivalence, this is just a comparison, but we have long abandoned conversion therapy for homosexuals, because we've found these preferences are core to them and not easily overwritten. The same is true for me as a straight person, I don't think therapy would help me find men attractive. I have to imagine the same is true for pedophiles.
The question is, if AI can produce pornography that can satisfy the urges of someone with pedophilia without harming any minors, is that a net positive? Remember the attraction is not the crime, it's the actions that harm others that are. Therapy should always be on the table.
This is a tricky subject because we don't want to become thought police, so all our laws are built in that manner. However there are big exceptions for sexual crimes due to the gravity of their impact on society. It's very hard to "stand up" for pedophilia because if acted upon it has monstrous effects, but AI is making us open this can of worms that I don't belive we ever really thought through besides criminalizing and demonizing (which could be argued was the correct approach with the technology at the time).
I really don't know enough about the subject or how that therapy works. I doubt that it is conversion therapy, but Ii really don't know. I would assume it's handling childhood trauma, medications etc.
Both therapy and if satisfying urges through AI generated content, is both something that should be answered scientifically. If there is research then that should be the basis for what decisions is taken, if there is a lack of research then more research should be the next step.
There's nothing particularly complicated about it not being ok to rape kids, or to distribute depictions of kids being raped.
Nobody here has at all suggested it's ok to rape kids. I hope you can understand the difference between thinking something and doing something.
This is true, but it really depends how "therapy" is defined. And forced therapy could mean anything from things like the old conversion therapy approach for gay people.
You might argue that these days we wouldn't do anything so barbaric, but considering that the nature of a pedophile's is very unsavory, and the fact that it will never be acceptable, unlike homosexuality, people would be far more willing to abuse or exploit said "therapy"