There have always been disgusting individuals that would consider performing sex activities with children even though they themselves are fully grown adults that have jobs and are mature in their own personal lives. Hence, it is understandable that pornography featuring children has always been quite popular as well, which is why there have always been laws against it. However, one thing to remember is that the world did not always have the internet, and this means that child pornography and indeed porn, in general, was not all that common before the internet became such a huge thing.
The number of people being charged with possession of child pornography is rising ever higher, and this started when the 21st century began. The sole reason for this is the internet, which made it incredibly easy for people to transfer data to one another in spite of the fact that they are very far from one another, and it has also made the transfer of money a lot faster than it would have been otherwise which made it possible for people that wanted to purchase child pornography to pay for it in a far more discreet manner, indeed being virtually undetectable if they use the right tools and techniques that they have at their disposal.
The penalty for possessing child pornography is a prison sentence of anywhere between one and five years. However, child pornography is not the only thing that the internet has made a lot more prevalent. There is also a solicitation. Solicitation is essentially where an individual tries to approach a child and ask them to commit sexual acts with them. The severity of the penalty for this kind of activity is contingent on how serious the solicitation was. If the minor was being solicited to send pornography and the like, the charge is going to be similar to that of possession of pornography.
However, if the solicitation was to incite the minor to provide actual sexual favors that might have lead to real-world interactions, the penalty is going to be a lot higher than it would have been otherwise. This is because of the fact that this is basically an attempt to molest a child, so attempted molestation charges are very common indeed in these cases due to the fact that people accused are probably guilty of much worse crimes that they have not been caught for yet.
This leads to us something that the internet actually improved: it made it easier for the law enforcement agencies and authorities to actually catch the criminals that were responsible for the crime that was being committed. This is because of the fact that such individuals don’t realize that their activities can be traced in one way or another, especially if the people that are looking for them have the privileges and technologies provided to investigators that have been sanctioned and are funded by the government.