Yeah, I'm pretty much going with the whole "Hate the sin, love the sinner" ideology when it comes to this. I'm not a fan of pedophilia in the least, but I'm not going to hate you because of it. Now, if something were to happen between you and a child, then it would be a different story. I believe that actions speak louder than words, and until a pedophile is found to be abusing children, they're just deemed by me as "kinda sketchy".

I'm torn on the idea of pornographic cartoons and stories though. On one hand no child in particular is being harmed, but on the other hand, it is the same essence of children in general that is cause for concern. Random unnamed child could just as well be Meier's kid for all intents and purposes. It's something that is hard to say because it's about an illegal act that borders more along the lines of disturbing. Now personally, I think that it's wrong because of those reasons, but if you were to take a fairly liberal stance, it would have to fall under the grounds of free speech.

Then again, you could take the Grand Theft Auto series and look at it in the same light. It depicts pretty much every crime that you can commit, yet no children are ever shown in the games (despite references made to the past), nor are children ever killed or even able to be killed. There's just something about being able to kill a child in those games that would be just far too sick and sadistic, and ultimately downright disturbing. I feel that pornography depicting children would be very similar.

Just because you can do anything you want, and say or write anything you want, doesn't mean that it is always appropriate or even morally justifiable to do so. A lot of the problem with pedophilia and child pornography comes from the idea that adults are supposed to protect, teach and guide children into adulthood. To take this instinctual notion and to twist it around to the point where the children are being exploited and used as sex objects just seems like a misuse of power and authority, even in a pornographic situation, where it would be deemed acceptable within the confines of the porno itself.