ABSTRACT
In terms of child pornography, three principal forms are known to exist; visual depictions, including photographs, drawings and pictures, written depictions and audio depictions. As technology advances, new forms of child pornography have begun to exist, and since the turn of the millennia, focus has turned to so-called 'virtual child pornography', that is computer-generated images of children depicting sexual abuse. Whilst society has distanced itself from campaigns it remains the case that some continue to argue that child pornography amounts to 'just photographs'. Studies have shown that children suffer psychological harm from the production of child pornography. Given that at the heart of child pornography is the abuse or exploitation of a child, it is an area where many countries at least agree on the need to do something to combat child pornography. In terms of international instruments there are a variety of approaches. The most common is to identify certain aspects that are always classed as child pornography.
