@ChazP: explain what healthy reason an adult male would have for looking at photographs of naked children

Because when it comes to sex, healthy adult males love variety and novelty. Part of their genetic programming is to seek it out. They don't always sick with it once the novelty wears off.

@ChazP: Do not people who watch War movies have a pre-disposition towards violence

As far as I am aware, there is no strong evidence one way or the other.

@Severin: You believe that biology has a greater import for a child than protecting said child from possible sexual predation of a parent who engages in viewing child porn?

Yes. Its like vaccines. There is a risk the vaccine will kill the kid, yet we vaccinate. A father who looks at child porn may be at higher risk of abusing his kids, but you are assuming the increase outweighs the benefits of having the biological father around. Do you have some evidence, or is it just a wild ass guess?

@Severin: How do you view adoptive parents - less able than biological parents?

Not less able. But certainly less willing on average to support kids, and more willing on average to exploit them.

@Severin: Very strange, very warped.

Not at all. Just reporting what the statistics show. What would be strange and warped is someone dening those conclusions, given how clear stats are on the subject.

@CJ Morgan: consumers of child pornography and their defenders seem oblivious to the fact that the production of pornography using children constitutes abuse in which consumers are complicit since they create the demand for the odious product.

No one is defending child pornography. Looking at pictures is not remotely similar to sexually abusing kids no matter how obnoxious the pictures, yet there is an obvious attempt here to equate the two. Money does not drive child porn and more than money drives knitting. Sure, participants of both have found they can make a little money on the side by selling their wares, but take it away and the "hobby" continues.

@CJ Morgan: With respect to the case under discussion, the father not only sought out, downloaded and reproduced child pornography, but also was inclined to invite his daughter into his bed.

Yes, the child porn is not a good look. But as far as I can tell, it was one of the few solid facts in the case. The rest were just allegations from the mother. It seems the judge wasn't inclined to take statements from either side at face value. If the case was fought with the same degree of rancour as displayed here, I'd say that is sensible.

@ChazP: so a 30 second act of donating sperm (ok girls I exaggerate on the time involved but I do sometimes have to protect their fragile little ego's) qualifies a male to absolute right and entitlement over a child.

Nope. Not even close. What makes the biological mother the most important person in a kids like is also what makes the biological father the second most important. They are, on average, the two individuals most willing to put time and money into raising the kid.

@ChazP: What also seems to be overlooked is that `Biological fathers' go on to become the step-fathers

You've lost it. I am a biological father, and I didn't "go on" to do any of those things. On the contrary, the presence of the biological father prevents those things from happening.

While we are on the topic, I was surprised to hear the other day of a study done on 50 year old women. It appears having the mother doing a poor job (as opposed to the father) correlates with mental disease, which is expected. What wasn't expected was above average coping skills and well being correlated not with the mother, but with father doing a good job. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2010/2843914.htm#transcript

@Stev, @Pynchme: It is nice to see some can still have a civil discussion on this topic, with a fair attempt to weave some logic into the debate.

rstuart ~ "Because when it comes to sex, healthy adult males love variety and novelty. Part of their genetic programming is to seek it out. They don't always sick with it once the novelty wears off."
You are stating that every healthy adult male in Australia engages in looking at photographs of naked children for sexual novelty and variety reasons!. I'd very much like to be a fly on the wall when you make this statement public in a pub or golf club. I would suggest you are making the worst possible insult to every adult male in Australia.
(rstuart ~ " I am a biological father, and I didn't "go on" to do any of those things. On the contrary, the presence of the biological father prevents those things from happening" ~ perhaps the Tasmanian Family Court case throws more accurate light on this if you want ti judge by individual instances.

Media report ".The court heard that Mr Rivas's youngest daughter had, at the age of three, posed for "disturbing" pornographic photographs, found on the memory card of a digital camera. The photographs were taken in 2008, apparently by the girl's six-year-old sister. The girl was posed for sexual intercourse. All nine photographs were graphic, and "deliberately focused on the genital region". Of the six-year-old who took the photos, a psychologist said: "Unless she has directly witnessed sexual intercourse in this manner, knowledge of that posture would be beyond her ".....the man's stepdaughter, who was four when her mother married the man and is now 19, told the court he flicked through pornographic magazines while her mother was out.

He began molesting her when she was nine, she said. He would wait for her mother to attend gun club meetings in Launceston on Wednesday nights, before telling her "you have been such a good girl tonight, you can have a reward" and putting his penis in her mouth."

Perhaps you can explain how biological fathers are different from step fathers.!. Is it only the different methods of child sexual abuse they commit?.

“Fathers’ absence from families is said to cause a wide range of social problems, from crime to poor school achievement. Certainly children raised in two-parent families do better on measures of educational achievement and psychological adjustment than children raised in single-parent families. But the research also shows that neither fatherlessness nor divorce by themselves determine children’s well-being.” (M.Flood 2003. pp. 23-26). “One of the most significant influences on children’s well-being is the quality of parenting and family relationships.” – Flood.

Note no differentiation is made between whether the intact two-parent families contain a biological father or a step father. But the most important point is that the absence of the biological father has little, if any, effect on a child’s well-being or development. Other factors have far more impact.

This clearly shows the `logic' of rstuart et al, is more than a little flawed and irrational.

From a personal point of view, the thought of having a sexual relationship with my daughter is grotesque. I know this because I am a father and I care for my own flesh and blood. If you are not a father, how can you possibly know that feeling or be judgmental in who would and who wouldn't? A step father would not have the same attachment as a real father and therefore be less caring. ChazP, you know nothing of the subject matter you speak.

ChazP,

Judith Dunn is MRC Research Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.

A developmental psychologist, she has conducted extensive longitudinal research on children's close relationships, including siblings and friends, on nonshared experiences within the family, on the development of social understanding, and most recently on family transitions and the impact of family change, at Cambridge University, Pennsylvania State University and University of London.

She has conducted a large-scale study of parental separation and child outcome framed within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. A particular interest is children's perspectives on family transitions and family processes more generally. Among numerous honours she has received the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Child Development from the Society for Research in Child Development and recently the G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology.

She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences. She was a Fellow of King'sCollege, Cambridge and is currently a Fellow of King's College London. She has published 18 books and over 200 papers.

Professor Dunn undertook a study containing a sample of 10,000 families who lived without a father in the household after separation. She found that in EVERY case that the children performed poorly at school, had social behavioural issues and many had committed suicide. She stressed the importance of a father figure in the household.

ChazP, this is the hard evidence. Not the fantasy you present