Communities across America are struggling with news of doctors, businessmen, educators and the average family man being caught downloading graphic, illegal images of child porn.
A wealthy Texas businessman was busted over possession of child porn on his computer. Just down the road, a third-grade teacher in Houston was prosecuted over the same abusive material.
John Shehan, project manager for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the problem is fueled by a pervasive adult-porn industry.
“They build up a tolerance effect," he said, "similar to drug abusers, where they are searching for a new high, and they migrate into child pornography.”
Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for media and sexuality at Focus on the Family Action, said the industry creates an appetite for child porn by advertising “teen porn” and “barely legal” porn.
“The whole object is to convince the user that younger is better," he said. "It’s only natural that at some point, people believe it’s OK to sexually exploit anyone, whether they want it or not, or whether they are children or not.”
Weiss said prosecuting illegal adult pornography is a good place to start.
"We’ve got to attack all points on the spectrum where people are being treated as sexual commodities," he said, "and that includes adult pornography that’s illegal.”
