‘Consent’ means to give permission for something to happen. It is important for us to consider the issue of consent when we are talking about the children in the images because children are not able to consent to sexual activity.
The following video gives one man’s experience of coming to terms with the harm that this behaviour can cause to the children in the images.
Why children are not able to consent to sexual activity
Children are not able to give consent because they can not fully understand what they are consenting to, or the emotional impact and consequences of sex.
Adults are generally able to give informed consent about sexual activity and photographs of them, unless they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs or have some kind of vulnerability.
Some people disagree about the age that children are mature enough to be able to give this permission. In the UK the age of consent for sexual activity is 16 years old. But any sexual picture of a child under 18 years old is illegal.
Children are not able to give consent to engage in sexual activity, and consent is further taken away from children when sexual images of them are taken and posted on the internet. Once an image is posted online, all control is lost over that image. The victim will experience further abuse with the knowledge that their picture is out there, being shared, and viewed, beyond their control.
Sexual images of under 18s are illegal
- naturist images
- ‘modelling’ images
- images of children with no adult present in the image
- cartoon/manga images
- self-taken sexual images
Child sexual exploitation
Consent is further removed from children if there is a power difference between them and the person who is inciting sexual activity. It is not uncommon for children to be sexually exploited as a part of the process of producing illegal images – for example, by receiving gifts, drugs, affection or accommodation – in exchange for engaging in sexual activity.
Sometimes pictures are taken of children without them knowing – for example, at the beach – and sometimes pictures are taken with the child’s knowledge. Sometimes a child will be coerced into taking and posting an image of themselves, without fully realising the consequences of doing this.
As part of this module in helping you recognise and acknowledge that the children in the images are real children, it is helpful – although difficult – to get yourself to think about how that child got to be in that situation of being in front of that camera. This is what we will be asking you to consider in the following exercise.
