While reading Jenkins' chapter on child pornography I was extremely interested about what age a person is considered to be an adult. Is it after puberty? Is it 18? Does it depend on the individual? There are those "ify" situations such as when a 17 year old female dates a twently year old male, which to me is a great deal different from a 35 year old male pursuing an 11 year female. But where is the line crossed and since it is unreasonable to take each situation individually there must be some concrete guidelines set up. Looking only at pornography and not at personal relationships it seems that the only option is to pick one specific age that people need to be in order to legally star and view pornography. According to the government a person can be considered an adult at 18, so that seems to be the obvious answer to the age question.
Child pornography and in general anything sexual involving children or minors is most likely the largest taboo in American society and the majority of other societies. It is seen as so incredibly repulsive to many and the most repugnant thing a person can do. However, for something so repugnant many people take part in Internet child pornography. So may take part unknowingly such as viewing Traci Lords films, but it is safe to assume that the majority of these viewers are looking for child pornography.
In Jenkins' chapter he says "at some point, probably every individual on the planet has such an interest and often indulfes in the exploration that accompanies it," and by interest he is referring to a sexual interest with prepubescent children. This sentence at first shocked, but then when I read on I understood that he meant that most people are intereste din prepubescent children when they themselves were prepubescent. I have heard the reasoning before that pedophiles are emotionally stunted thus causing them to be incapable of a sexual relationship with their peers and instead being attracted to small children. I can somewhat understand this reasoning, but I am just reluctant to let this "reason" be an excuse for such obscene behavior.
Since child pornography is such a taboo it is not a topic most feel awkward and uncomfortable discussing it in public. However, ignoring this topic will not make it go away and if people feel so strongly about this topic they need to not let their discomfort get in the way of educating children on how to avoid those who would take advantage of them.
