Political advance from Lower Austria – child pornography should now be called differently

“Linguistic, pictorial depiction of sexual acts with one-sided emphasis on the genital area and ignoring the psychological and partner aspects of sexuality” – this is how the term “pornography” is defined in the dictionary. What it doesn’t say, but the term suggests, is that there are conscious decisions behind these files. This may be the case with adult artists, but certainly not with children.

Not a voluntary decision
“It is therefore important for me not to speak of pornography in connection with children. If adults choose to do so voluntarily, it is not a crime. Sexual abuse, violence, corruption and the recruitment of children for sexual purposes, on the other hand, are something completely different,” explains provincial councilor Teschl-Hofmeister. According to her, children also suffer from violence in a completely different dimension. Recent years have shown that the internet provides a platform for topics such as violence and abuse of minors, fueling the consumption of “child pornography”. People who satisfy their inclinations in this way accept and encourage abuse of minors.

For precision, against trivialization
The Teichtmeister case shows a serious violation of children’s rights. Any display of child sexual abuse material is an act of violence. The state councilor is therefore calling for legal clarification of the language and plans to expand her round table campaign against violence. She wants to counteract the trivialization of the subject. “The online abuse of children and young people should also be called that in the future,” she demands.

Praise comes from Hedwig Wölfl, director of the organization “die möwe”. “I would very much like to support the initiative to network all institutions working in this field, where the systematic integration of child protection centers in the field of protection against violence seems to me to be an urgent necessity. A major step would be the visualization of unofficial child protection in partnerships, publications and case discussions. You can only achieve child protection together,” she says.