7/21/2026 at 7:09:19 PM
Maybe my perception is off, but it seems like there's a huge push by the legislature and some people to do anything and everything to prevent CSAM, yet almost nothing seems to be done to prevent CSA.For CSAM, there's all sorts of monitoring, scanning, identify capturing, etc. But it's all after abuse has taken place, and it seems that many of the people actually arrested are arrested for CSAM and not CSA. This has even extended to fictional CSAM such as AI generated stories and pictures. As an aside, if that gets extended to political speech or other non-CSAM materials that are determined to be undesirable, that's a big concern. I can imagine that a conservative state could pass a law banning all porn because they claim it could encourage illegal activities such as prostitution, rape, or CSA.
On the CSA side, you rarely hear about arrests (they happen but less than CSAM). There doesn't seem to be any real push for educating and protecting kids before it happens. Ironically, the groups doing the most to educate and implement protective strategies are the ones who have been involved in abuse scandals in the past (Churches, Scouts, etc). Even then, a lot of it is just getting clearances, which doesnt prevent people who where not caught or were first timers. Offenders get put on a list/map. This is sort of a half approach. If they are still a threat, they shouldn't be released. Yet if you comb the list and see some of the results, they don't all seem to fit with CSA. I personally know of 1 who took a leak across from a playground at 2am walking home from the bars and was put on the sex offender registry because it was within 500'.
It seems like these laws are more about peddling to the publicist and lawmakers fantasy of incrementally extreme punishment rather than taking a appropriate, data driven, and level-headed approach that actually protects kids. Otherwise they will just keep pushing ham-fisted low-hanging "fixes" like required scanning and IDs to access the internet.
by giantg2
7/21/2026 at 8:36:47 PM
Because it isn't about CSAM, IMO. You see this with plenty of social issues, notably firearms ownership. The claim is we will restrict/license/outlaw xyz for the kids, but really, a data-drive approach would have focused on different things entirely (eg additional behavioral health services for kids, suicide prevention etc)The same technology/access used for CSAM identification can find copyrighted files, materials that don't support current government, etc. Full E2E encryption seriously raises the cost of mass surveillance, and why the US government fights it at every turn going back 30 years.
by Hasz
7/21/2026 at 9:29:42 PM
CSAM is the perfect trojan horse to undermine privacy everywhere. No politician and no company can oppose it on the grounds of protecting privacy before having the reputation ruined.Meanwhile the real pedos are rich people vacationing in well known places.
by manoDev
7/21/2026 at 9:58:18 PM
The CSAM issue is both very real and abused by politicians. When I did some work with a police agency, it was explained to me that there’s a pattern of escalation with people and they tend to accumulate collections and many escalate to actual behavior.The detectives assigned to this work tend to not last long, and the horrific nature of the crime affects them.
Like all rape, it’s a combo of control and dopamine. The church and Boy Scout leaders leveraged their societial influence and power to compel compliance and even loyalty from their victims. Boy Scouts as an organization inserted itself into existing power structures like church, police and other institutions. It’s difficult for a 11 year old victim to make an accusation about a beloved community figure. They also tend to find ways to make their victims feel complicit. Even if people come forward, they are hard cases to try and exposes young victims to public shame. Many of these people plea to lesser crimes to protect the victim.
I wasn’t a victim thank god, but a Boy Scout leader at my parish was a serial molester who abused dozens or hundreds of children. I learned about it years later and realized that some of my friends were almost certainly victims — in his case everyone in authority just blew it off
by Spooky23
7/21/2026 at 8:53:17 PM
In Sweden we're going to literally have Minority Report style pre-crime registries for potential child molesters. We already have one for potential domestic abusers. Fuck this country. I need to get out of here before it gets worse.by guerrilla
7/21/2026 at 9:37:07 PM
Say what now? What criteria do they use to scan the populace and create a pre-crime registry of any kind?by hansvm
7/21/2026 at 7:25:55 PM
I think it's similar with other liability issues, e.g., when a company happens to "lose" customer data through a breach. They will be on the hook for not having certain audits and certifications at regular intervals. Practically never will anyone be feeling any pain due to absolute disregard for basic common sense precautions to prevent issues in the first place. So usually, the pattern is that issues that can be outsourced to insurance will be handled by compliance departments - which don't care about the actual problems, just that the fallout from them is "managed" accordingly.by twothreeone
7/21/2026 at 7:45:24 PM
That's actually a little funny. I work in compliance and we regularly work with the teams to improve processes that enhance security. I will say though, that the outsourced work that we send to consultants has the same sort of result you describe.by giantg2
7/21/2026 at 9:58:59 PM
> On the CSA side, you rarely hear about arrests (they happen but less than CSAM).Because it is nearly always someone we know. Someone who we just cannot imagine would ever do such a thing, even when the evidence is glaringly obvious. And I suspect that the fraction of the population diddling kids in real life is breathtaking, and nobody really wants to face that head on. Too uncomfortable.
I could just be overly cynical today. But given my own experiences and other people I've known throughout my life, I really believe it is very common.
by rootusrootus
7/21/2026 at 7:41:16 PM
One is far easier to prove. If the government could continuously monitor our actions "Is this CSA?" they might very well be pushing for that, too.by ribosometronome
7/21/2026 at 8:19:01 PM
if you wear red glasses...by garyfirestorm
7/21/2026 at 8:08:28 PM
>if that gets extended toIf you provide the government a platform to do So, they'll do Y if you wait long enough
by inemesitaffia
7/21/2026 at 8:34:11 PM
The problem is, the things that would actually prevent CSA require things like "giving children rights", "widely mandating effective age-appropriate sex education even for young children", and "admitting that it's mostly not scary strangers doing it."These are utterly anathema to huge chunks of society, especially American society. It's more and more clear, from the scope of the Epstein Files, just how much of American society and government has been influenced specifically to enable easy access to children by rich white men. Even beyond that, the entire right wing would instantly catch fire if we actually required effective sex education. Especially age-appropriate sex education going right down to kindergarten (yes, kindergarten: the better children that age understand what's normal and safe, the better they can communicate when someone is doing things to them that are not that...and I only stop at kindergarten because AFAIK that's the earliest mandated schooling still). Similarly, the right wing desperately wants to have absolute control over their children—treat them as property—so giving children rights that even parents have to respect will get them to oppose absolutely everything.
Plus, as other sibling comments have already noted, the real desire here is for ubiquitous surveillance. CSAM is just the excuse they use.
by danaris
7/21/2026 at 8:54:04 PM
Somehow, even something as simple as "age-appropriate sex education going right down to kindergarten" would tend to end up "special interests education from vocal minority groups."by throwaway89864
7/21/2026 at 9:42:56 PM
To be clear, I recognize that there is zero chance of genuine effective age-appropriate sex education being mandated in the foreseeable future in the US, nor has there been any such chance at any time in the past. I'm merely noting some of the things that would actually be helpful measures in combating CSA if it were possible to implement them.You're absolutely right that, even if such a mandate had already existed, it would've been erased or co-opted by right-wing groups by now.
by danaris
7/21/2026 at 8:28:19 PM
> ones who have been involved in abuse scandals in the past (Churches, Scouts, etc)And those groups still have lower rates of abuse than Schools which do a lot less training and enforcement of youth protection policies.
Children are still safer in Scouts and churches than in schools.
Just about every kid goes to school though, so people just prefer to sweep that under the rug and focus on targeting organizations they are not a part of or disagree with because they're easier to demonize and make fun of.
I work with kids, and I've had to take the Scouts and Catholic Church's youth protection training. They are both free to take online if anyone wants to check it out.
by rationalist
7/21/2026 at 8:35:35 PM
>And those groups still have lower rates of abuse than SchoolsIs that in absolute terms, or per child who frequents the establishment?
by fluoridation
7/21/2026 at 8:49:35 PM
And those groups still have lower rates of abuse than SchoolsWhat evidence do you have of this? The only sources I can find that would even vaguely support your claim switch to talking about physical abuse in schools, or sexual assault committed by fellow students.
To be clear, we're discussing the sexual assault of children by adults here. We're not talking about physical abuse, nor are we talking about assault by fellow students.
by snozolli
7/21/2026 at 8:46:33 PM
Does the school work to cover it up to the same extent? Are people across the school in on it? Are the rates of abuse higher on a per capita basis?Why are you making apologies for (Catholic) church sex abuse? Because you are a member and you took a training? Yikes.
by godwinson__4-8
7/21/2026 at 9:17:02 PM
Where did you see apologies?I read it basically as “schools are even worse than churches and scouts yet are overlooked,” nothing apologizing for the churches.
by schrodinger
7/21/2026 at 9:49:19 PM
HN is very anti-religion. It turns off their brain when they see it and leads to these kinds of responses.by xboxnolifes