I cannot see how visual depiction of a non-consenting person in sexual acts/poses would fall under free
speech (which is essentially what we are talking about when talking about child porn) - my definition of 'non-consenting person' being someone who either did not agree with it happening regardless of age, or someone who does not fully understand what he is doing (which is for example the case with pre-pubescent kids). I do however feel that most of the psychological consequences of this 'abuse' are not due to what actually happened, but due to their environment telling them it is bad, and making a fuss out of it.
That being said, 'child porn', and generally pedophilia/ephebophilia (for the record, that is not equal to a child molester) in general, have become a scare tactic like terrorism is. A way to push regulations that otherwise noone would agree with. The entire 'your child may be next!' crusade by governments around the world is simply sickening, as it is essentially manipulating people by exploiting their moral judgment. A very good example of people being influenced by this is the very first post in this topic:
I'm a dad of two little ones
The abuse that children undergo does not become worse or less worse depending on whether you have kids or not. All you are doing is falling for the 'your kid is next' fearmongering.
Some of the issues arising as a consequence of this, are that for example stories or drawn/animated porn involving minors (where is the injured/abused party?) have also become socially unacceptable and in many cases illegal. Another issue is that the very moment you do NOT condemn pedophiles and child porn completely and entirely, and you do not call them monsters... you are immediately labelled a pedophile yourself. "If you're not against them, you're one of them."
People have to realize that logically reasoning about a situation does not mean that you morally approve of every aspect of it. People have to realize that a pedophile is someone with a love/sexual interest in prepubescent kids, that an ephebophile is someone with an interest in pubescent kids, and that neither has actually abused anyone until they engage in non-consentual sex, at which moment they are a child molester. The terms are not interchangeable. Pedophile and ephebophile signify an interest, a sexual orientation (one that, for the record, you are born with and do not have a choice in), something that is (thankfully) not illegal yet (thoughtcrimes anyone?) - whereas child molester signifies an actual action. There are plenty of pedophiles and ephebophiles who do absolutely nothing wrong, who try to suppress their feelings and fall back to animated/drawn porn and stories to satisfy their feelings without actually hurting or abusing any real live person - yet they are automatically labeled monsters of society, thanks to these scare tactics employed by governments.
People also have to realize that nature doesn't listen to man-made numbers called 'age'. Children are sexually mature when they are sexually mature, and no matter how much you would want it to be, 18 years old (in some jurisdictions 15, 16, 21) is not some magical age barrier where someone is suddenly aware of who they are, what they want (both sexually and in other areas) and can act for himself. Children will be curious, and try things. If you do some actual research into the history of things like age of consent, child pornography, and such, you will find that at some points in time this was just a way 'to earn an extra buck', and that many 'children' (teenagers) engaged in child porn production as actors, entirely voluntary.
As a final note I wish to say that I would not approve of killing any person, regardless of situation. In my opinion not a single person on this earth (or any other planet, if you happen to know any aliens) has the authority to take anothers life without consent.
TL;DR: If you are reading this line first you either do not care about the post, or you are looking for the easy way and only skimmed the text. I suggest you read the actual post entirely before raging at me