I Feel Sorry for Your Children: Family Photos or Child Pornography

Browsing through the Huff Post website, I came across an article about photographer Wyatt Neumann and his recent art gallery.

Early this year, he took a roadtrip with his family and, like most people on family vacations, he took some photos. Some of the photos he shared were of his two-year old daughter. These photos have apparently caused a state of unrest over the internet, leading to both his Facebook page and his Instagram account being taken down.

Some people are looking at, what I think are just innocent pictures, of his daughter and labeling it as 'child pornography.'

After reading the article and looking at some of the comments, it reminded me of a conversation my sister, my mom, and I had a few years ago while going through some family albums. My sister and I were born, respectively, in 1985 and 1988, so most of the pics in that particular set of albums (my mom has so many photo albums) were taken between 1989 to around 1991 - when were between the ages of 1 years old and 6 years old. There's a decent amount of half-dressed or naked babies/toddlers in those album. As we were going through it, my sister said, (after looking at probably the 10th 'aww-look-at-how-cute-the-babies-look-sharing-a-bubble-bath shot), "If these pictures were shared now, they'd probably be a ton of people yelling about 'child pornography,'" and then we spent some time talking about how in modern times, people's own filthy thought do cause them to pervert even the most innocent things.

We went on to talk about my cousins (men) who wouldn't allow their one-year old/two-year old/ five-year old daughters to wear certain bathing suits because it would be "too revealing."

We spoke about the kinds of minds that would see a one-year old in a bathing suit and think (or assume others would think) that there was anything sexual in it.

We talked about the man who asked a father of two kids (a ten year old son and a three year old daughter), to "cover up" his daughter, who had been running through the sprinklers in just a pair of swimsuit bottoms - because a three year old without a top was too 'sexual' for the kids park.

We were sickened by the state of American minds (and I do think this is a highly American mind-set), that they would see a young child in these settings and automatically assume that it's meant to be or would be viewed as sexual; sickened by the fact that they would think that 'norm' would be to sexualize the kids. These people who think that most people would see a three year old in a bathsuit and think "sex" rather than a child at play.

I don't think most people think that way though. I think most of us wouldn't sexualize a child, no matter what they're wearing. I think most of us know that anyone who would find a three year old in a bikini 'sexy' is simply someone who would find any three year old sex (a pedophile). I think most of us are educated enough (whether it's through school or just world-wise), to know that a pedophile isn't attracted to kids because they're wearing 'revealing' clothes. We know that people who are attracted to children (in any circumstance) are NOT the norm. We know that viewing children as sexual beings is NOT the norm. We know that, in most case, when a parent takes a picture of their kid having fun in a bubble bath, running through the sprinkles, baby's first potty, oh-my-god-she's-wearing-her-diaper-on-her-head-how-cute?!, it's not a sexual thing. It's not meant to be a sexual thing. And most healthy and normal people would not view it as a sexual thing.

It's not the pictures that are sexual or inappropriate or dirty, it's the minds of those individuals. It's their problem, it's their minds. If you see a naked three year old at play and you automatically think "sex", that's your problem. You're the one that needs to seek help.
August 21st, 2014 at 09:08pm