International concern over the sexual exploitation of children focuses on the most notorious black-spots: the child-prostitutes of Southeast Asia and Latin America; the organised paedophile and child pornography rings of Europe and Australia; and the sites they use to peddle their material on the Internet. But no society is immune. Crackdowns in Europe have provided the impetus for new distribution centres elsewhere. Hong Kong police have seen the territory's potential as a base for paedophile operations. They have rightly decided to push the Government to prevent a flood of illicit material hitting the streets - and to stop local children falling into the hands of the evil exploiters behind the child pornography trade. Government should act swiftly to enact police proposals outlawing the possession of child pornography. Some people may have difficulty with the notion that possession alone - whether in printed, video or electronic form - should be a criminal offence. Civil libertarians say possession should be a matter of personal choice. Others may argue any law which makes mere possession of goods an offence is an invitation to the police to plant evidence. Possession offences effectively put the onus of proof on the accused and should be introduced only with good reason. But there is always a victim in child abuse, whether directly or vicariously through pornographic material. The exercise of personal choice is a choice only to destroy the childhood of another. There is an unambiguous moral obligation on any society to protect its children from sexual molestation and exploitation. Hong Kong should follow the example of other governments which prosecute their own citizens for paedophile exploitation abroad as well as within their own territory; and it should have no hesitation in cracking down hard on any form of child sex or pornography business here - even if the territory is no more than a trading centre for materials produced or enjoyed elsewhere.
