Imagine that your neighbor, or your son's coach, or your daughter's piano teacher has pictures of children topless and posed provocatively. 

Now, imagine finding out that it's perfectly legal, and that he or she will not get in trouble.  The law is on their side.  You will never be aware that they look at this type of material, and they will continue to spend time with your child.

Under the current New Jersey legislature for child pornography it includes "nudity, if depicted for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification of any person who may view such depiction".   Nudity refers to the genitalia only.  What most people would consider to be child pornography is actually only child erotica, which is completely legal. 

I recently learned about someone who was found to be in possession of child erotica.  The police officers who responded to the call believed the pictures to be child pornography.  Therefore they filed a report and an investigation was started.  However, there were no charges pressed against the individual because the pictures did not meet the narrow definition of child pornography.  The detectives, as well as the FBI agents who later viewed the pictures, found the pictures disturbing, as most people would, but explained that the definition has to be limited so that parents don't get arrested for taking innocent pictures of their children.

The pictures in question were clearly not innocent. They contained photos of children ranging in age from approximately 6-12 years old without tops on, in lingerie and bikinis with their legs spread wide, or bending over provocatively. Any reasonable adult should be able to tell the difference between a 7 year old posing topless for a stranger and parents taking a picture of their child's first bath. 

According to a study , "A longitudinal study of 341 convicted child molesters in America found that pornography's use correlated significantly with their rate of sexually re-offending. Frequency of pornography use was primarily a further risk factor for higher-risk offenders, when compared with lower-risk offenders, and use of highly deviant pornography correlated with increased recidivism risk for all groups.[1)

Because of this correlation between viewing child pornography and molesting children, I am asking that our government look into either expanding the definition of child pornography or making items which do fall into the category of child erotica carry a legal penalty.  Others states have laws that are as narrow as NJ, but there are states that include showing buttocks and female breasts as pornography.  Our children need to be kept safe. 

References

1- Kingston DA et al. (2008). "Pornography use and sexual aggression: the impact of frequency and type of pornography use on recidivism among sexual offenders.". Aggress Behav 34 (34): 1–11. doi:10.1002/ab.20250. PMID 18307171.