Art or Child Pornography?

It seems that today, people are debating over the meaning of these words.

Recently in Australia, there was controversy over an art exhibition featuring photographs by Bill Henson. These photographs included naked images of 12 and 13 year old adolescents and 20 out of the 41 images were seized by police.

The exhibition was closed down just before it was due to open, with complaints from 8 people about alleged child pornography. Kevin Rudd, prime minister of Australia, labeled the pictures as "revolting".

Whilst many protesters lined up outside the gallery against Henson’s work, others protested for it, claiming it was "only art".

Henson made efforts to make sure that the models and their parents were comfortable and completely informed of what was taking place during the photo shoot.

Another case has also arisen, where a picture of a six year old naked girl has been used for the cover of the July edition of Art Monthly Australia. The magazine is using the cover to protest the frenzy over the Bill Henson affair. The Premier of New South Wales calls it a "cheap, sick stunt". The girl was the daughter of photographer, Polixeni Papapetrou, and Papapetrou said she supports the use of her photograph as the magazine’s cover. She made this statement:

"We need to be clever enough to distinguish art from other types of images, otherwise we live in danger of eradicating any image of childhood in this culture for future generations to see".

The artworks have succeeded in provoking an emotional reaction and many questions have been raised about the whether the photographs are art or something else.

Many people are now asking, where do we draw the line?