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Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

> In the US, it looks like the number of child pornography cases is going down each year

Prosecuting fewer cases doesn't mean less abuse is occurring.

It doesn't even mean that the number of instances of abuse for which cases are prosecuted are going down, just that the number of offenders prosecuted is going down.

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Agree. It may well be a bad proxy. But it does not mean the problem is getting worse either, one would need to back it up with some arguments/estimates. The number of pictures on the internet does not seems a good one to me (cats population has not grown that big).

I am thinking that people don't seem to know if the problem is really getting bigger. They just say it. If we don't know that, we cannot use growing child pornography as an argument to reducing civil liberties.

> They just say it. If we don't know that, we cannot use growing child pornography as an argument to reducing civil liberties.

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/child-predators

The FBI says it. People can and do use that argument whether we like it or not.

Yes, they said it in 2011. With just one data point and no trend. Nothing shows here it exploded since. So the FBI and the whole society may have found somewhat effective ways without scanning phones.

I don’t expect to convince you the FBI is right. I am pointing out that other people will be convinced.

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