182

News

Politicians disagree on child pornography laws

admin
March 10th, 2014


This article is more than 10 years old.

While one party wants new laws to close loopholes, the other says better enforcement of current laws is enough

A grey area in the law that prevents taking and distributing pornographic images of children legally allows sexually-charged photographs of children to be released and viewed every day.

The images that fall into the grey zone show young children who are obviously being posed in ways designed to be erotic: scantily clad, wearing adult makeup and pouting sexually, for example – even though they are not being abused and have their genitalia covered

Members of Socialdemokraterne (S) want new laws in place to close the loopholes.

“We are open to seeing if there can be additions to the current penal code to outlaw these types of images,” S spokesperson Trine Bramsen told Politiken newspaper. “If there is anything that we as legislators can do to punish the people taking these pictures, we will do it.”

The eye of the beholder
Bramsen admitted that identifying exactly which pictures are offensive can get tricky.

“It should never mean that a mother cannot take a picture of her baby at the pool in the summertime,” she said.

Venstre spokesperson Karsten Lauritzen said that police need to get better at enforcing the laws already on the books.

“These photos greatly offend me,” Lauritzen told Politiken. “That being said, the most effective way to get rid of them is to enforce existing legislation as most of them are already in violation of the law.”

READ MORE: National police: No Dane involved in child porn ring

The majority of parties in parliament are in favour of tightening the current laws.


Share

Most popular

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to receive The Daily Post

















Latest Podcast

A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”