ok im finally awake enough to elaborate. dont rt this thread ive been awake for literally 30 minutes and only mutuals get to see my strong opinions aboug right or wrong at 730 am in the morning

lets take, for example, cp laws. how a lot of ppl seem to think cp laws work is that it only applies to like...actual photographs and videos (this isn't true btw but for the sake of this argument ill go by the Popular Definition) (lol)

the point of cp laws, i am sure we can all agree, is to protect children and punish the people who would intend to hurt them--or, under this definition, people who already *have* hurt them. and thats all well and good, sure, that is still criminals off the streets

but it fails to take into account the actual process by which a predator hunts a child. (a lot of psas abt predators do actually.) did you know that statistically, most predators know their victims very well? this begs the question, how do people not notice, and how do victims

say nothing? the answer is a process called grooming, which involves the normalization of things that arent normal--in this case, either through actual footage, "innocent" drawings, or simply by talking to them repeatedly about the subject. this is *exceedingly* common in cases.

the grooming process takes a long time, which is why it can only be undertaken by predators who already know the victim well. and, very importantly, youll see that cp laws only prohibit *one* of the ways that predators use to groom victims.

does this suddenly mean that the other two methods are a-ok and just fine? oh my god, no it doesnt, the law is a set of basic guidelines *at best* that need to built on, and in the us? are bought and sold by businessmen and politicians. the law is not Solid Morality.

the point is to protect people. the safety of victims-and most importantly, the prevention of new victims-is paramount. to aim any lower is to do a disservice to all the people in the past who have had to suffer because their suffering wasnt "immoral" or however it get justified

human life, safety, and happiness is the point. the law fails to do this, as i have detailed in this thread, and as any given civil rights activist could tell you as well. using the law as a moral standpoint is inherently flawed, and you can all do much, much better than that.