[danbruc]

But I suggest that the depraved individuals who consume such materials are already used to being outliers [...]

The perception of those people also has to change. I would guess most of them will not have made a conscious choice to be attracted to children in the same way that most homosexuals will not have decided to be attracted to the same sex. So they have to deal with a desire that they can never fulfill without doing something really bad and many of them would probably benefit from professional help. But thinking about those people as if they are the personified evil and considering them almost inhuman, is probably not what will encourage them to come forward and seek help.

[anigbrowl]

That's valid to some extent, for people who want to change. Not all of them do.

Also, sometimes the most strident voices of condemnation are seeking to draw attention away from their own criminality. A couple of months ago a guy in Southern California was arrested and charged with not just possession but production of CP and other sexual offenses. He had a private room on his business premises that he used for these crimes. In 2021, he had hosted an anti-child-sex-trafficking rally in the parking lot of the same business location.

Likewise, think of the numerous cases of moral crusaders against fornication/ homosexuality/ whatever that turn out to have been engaged in the same behavior that they regularly denounce. Dishonest people see no problem with being a pastor or community leader and bilking the suckers foolish enough to donate to them.

[danbruc]

I would guess that there are, to a first approximation, two groups of people - those consuming child pornography and those producing it. The consumers are probably the much larger group and to a certain extend one could maybe even call them harmless, at least ignoring the risk that they will go further in the future and that they are driving the demand. I don't know if this is actually true, but in the discussion of prostitution you regularly come across the argument that it is a way to satisfy a desire that might otherwise be satisfied through rape or other sexual abuse. In the same way consuming child pornography might prevent a certain group of people from themselves abusing children directly. When it comes to the producers, things might be much more bleak. They are the subgroup you really want to go after. Some of them might even do this just for the money without themselves being interested in children.

[anigbrowl]

There are two such groups, but the overlap is significant. A lot of CP is acquired by trade rather than sale. I don't think there's much evidence either way for the proposition that consumption prevents further harm.

Anyway, my point was that some of the most strident condemnation is actually performative & deceptive.

Another example literally just popped up in my news feed: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/library-va...