Fantasy

Fantasy - "imagination unrestricted by reality" - "a series of pleasing mental images...to fulfil a need not gratified in reality" - Collins English Dictionary. Once again, as with "grooming", I struggle to understand the innocuous terms we use to describe really aberrant behaviour.

Listening to the radio today there was an interesting discussion about the ready availability of pornographic images on the internet. It centred on whether the ISP's regulate their sites enough & whether there is evidence that this sort of imagery actually leads to serious crime. There are people who feel that there should not be any regulation of what is available on the internet, justified by a "freedom of information / speech" ethic. There is also an issue about how you actually do it. There are also people who deny any causal link between the images & crime.

Are we in danger of forgetting that the people in these images, whether they are children of either sex or adults, are being abused in the most vile way & are probably very vulnerable people who need help and protection. At it's worst extreme there are actually"snuff videos". Another sanitised term for something unspeakable. Aren't there times when we do have to say this is simply never acceptable & everyone should be doing everything possible to stop it. Software designers today can achieve almost anything, surely this is not beyond them? Or are we not prepared to pay the monetary price?

In the recent case of Mark Bridger's murder of April Jones and a whole litany of similar cases around the world, a high price is already being paid by family, friends & the stalwart professionals who have to deal with these men face to face. I can only try to imagine, very ineffectually, how I would have felt in similar circumstances.

What we are talking about is not "fantasy" in any way that I recognise the word. Until we stop using euphemisms & find words to accurately define what this evil is, we may never really get to grips with it & find effective ways of lancing the suppurating boil on humanity that it is.