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Popular interest

• Cameron: a bad case of child exploitation

Why politicians love to pose as the grand protectors of children. (Ken McLaughlin - spiked, UK)

• Children's charity rejects Edathy money

The Child Protection Federation of Lower Saxony has rejected the €5,000 which ex-MP Sebastian Edathy was ordered to pay them for illegally downloading child pornography, saying they didn't want to endorse his escape from punishment. (The Local, de)

• German politician Edathy confesses in child pornography trial

In order to avoid a trial and possible imprisonment, Sebastian Edathy confessed in court to using his official work laptop to download pornographic videos and images of children from the Internet. Following Edathy's admission, the Verden District Court in the German state of Lower Saxony on Monday handed the former Social Democrats (SPD) deputy a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,600), bringing the trial to an end. (Deutsche Welle)

• Alleged child porn king admits he had illegal images but denies they were for sale

Brian Way of Azov Films is pleading not guilty to 17 counts of making, advertising, publishing, selling and distributing child pornography. He is not disputing that the vast majority of the images found in his home are child pornography, but that the images that were for sale by his company were not child pornography. (Christie Blatchford - National Post, CA)

• 5 Ways We Misunderstand Pedophilia (That Makes it Worse)

Pedophilia is almost a total mystery to modern science. We don't know what causes it, or how to prevent it, or how to cure it (short of a form of castration), because the moment a test subject admits they're a pedophile, they're ruined for life. Why would anyone ever come forward? Thus, society's insistence on taking the harshest possible position winds up exacerbating the problem. (Robert Evans et al. - Cracked , US)

• Pro-pedophile association loses EU court bid

The European Court of Human Rights rejected a complaint by pedophile advocacy association Martijn against the ban Dutch courts imposed on the group last year. The organization will remain prohibited, and the court will not hear the case, reported ANP. (Hanna Daych - NL Times, NL)

• U.S. House passes International Megan's Law sponsored by N.J. Rep. Chris Smith

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to extend Megan's Law beyond American borders.( Jonathan D. Salant - NJ Advance Media, US)

• Spain set to raise age of consent from 13 to 15

The Spanish government is considering raising the age of sexual consent from 13 to 15 in a reform of the country’s penal code, in a bid to limit child sexual abuse. (Jessica Jones - The Local, Spain)

• Child protection makes suspects of us all

Once, children had to be accompanied by adults to attend certain events. Now, in a bizarre turn of events, it seems the opposite is true. (Rossa Minogue - spiked, UK)

• Child-abuse inquiry: no way to the truth

A culture of mistrust in Westminster meant this inquiry was doomed to unravel. (Frank Furedi - spiked, UK)