Red Deer mom charged with child porn leads group to say there's usually men behind such cases
Child exploitation uncomfortable to talk about but people need to keep eyes open, advocate says
A child protection advocacy group says there is no one size fits all description of who makes child pornography.
It comes after a 43-year-old Red Deer mother was charged with allegedly using her four-year-old son to make child pornography and distribute it to an Idaho man.
Signy Arnason, the director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, says the Red Deer case is rare but there is still usually a male involved when women are the perpetrators.
"Well, it's absolutely horrific," Arnason tells CBC News.
"Typically what we see when it involves women, is that they are in some type of relationship where they might be doing things or be motivated to do things to please the male partners they are with. We'll see more of those scenarios."
U.S. authorities say the mother met the Idaho man online.
He was found with hundreds of pornographic images of children and dozens of videos.
Police say he was planning to move to Canada to be closer to the mother on the day of his arrest, and that's why Arnason says it's a good thing police intervened when they did.
"If he is motivated to move here then it's not a big leap to think he was motivated to move to have sexual access with her child," she said.
Arnason says people are uncomfortable with the idea of child exploitation but she says they need to keep their eyes open for strange behavior around children.
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