2003-10-21 Doctors delighted at child porn ruling Doctors For Life International (DFL) is pleased with the judgement of the Constitutional Court that the possession and production of child pornography should stay illegal. DFL testified for the State on the effects of pornography on the brains of those looking at it. DFL presented some of the latest research on the effects of pornographic images on the brain, mind and memory. The research showed that photographic images, unlike real life images, pass through a centre in the brain allowing the individual to decide whether an image is real and should be stored as such or discarded. Pornographic images, however, shortcut this centre and are stored in the brain as real-life experiences. This has dramatic impact on the behaviour of a person exposed to this material and remains embedded in his memory for long periods of time. The evidence lead by DFL in the High Court during the early stages of this case so clearly demonstrated the harm done by child pornography that the Constitutional Court mainly had to decide whether this specific incident warranted an exception. Deputy Chief Justice Langa confirmed this when he held that ìChild pornography is universally condemned for good reason. It strikes at the dignity of children, it is harmful to children who are used in its production, and it is potentially harmful because of the attitude to child sex that it fosters and the use to which it can be put in grooming children to engage in sexual conductî. DFL is an organisation of more than 1000 medical doctors, specialists and professors of medicine from South Africa and around the world. |
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