Child sexual abuse can be defined as "any form of sexual activity with a child. It may include showing a child pornographic materials, placing the child's hand on another person's genitals, touching a child's genitals and to the more extreme form of penetration." (Kali Munro) It is essential to understand what child abuse through pornography is, what it can do to a child and why this kind of abuse continues. Someone who knows what pornography can do to a child is a thirty-one year old, mother of two named Bonnie. Bonnie spoke to the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography about her experience with pornography and child abuse. Both of Bonnie's husbands" were into pornography and abused her and her two daughters, Michelle and Debbie. The account of the abuse that took place between Bonnie's second husband, Paul and her daughters are as follows:.
He seemed to enjoy showing them pornographic material. The girls remember specifically a time when Paul showed them a picture of a "naked lady dressed in the bottom of a leopard skin outfit and holding a whip." He asked them what they thought of it. Both children said they were disgusted at viewing the picture. My daughters told me . . . that Paul asked them if they wanted to be photographed like the girls in the magazines. The girls also told me that Paul sometimes played a game with them in which their feet were tied up tightly with a rope. The molestations included "bad touching" and exhibitionism by Paul . . . . If I ever questioned either her (Michelle) or Paul about what was the matter, Michelle would look scared at Paul and say, "Nothing's wrong, Mommy." After I left Paul, Michelle told me why she never said what was wrong. If she had told, Paul threatened to put her in a large garbage bag and dump her in a lake. Even after I filed for divorce and Paul was put on probation, the damage has been done. My beautiful daughters are very wary and frightened of men now.
