Hello, /r/AskSocialScience!

Currently in Denmark, there's a documentary series being shown that investigates the era in Denmark during which child pornography was legal to import, edit, sell, distribute and consume (production still being illegal), spanning from 1969 (when the ban on pornography in general was lifted, a world first) until 1980 when it was made illegal.

Before it was finally outlawed in 1980, there had been a law proposal, only a year before, which tried to achieve the same, but which failed to pass, with the main argument against a ban being that there had been a big drop in child sexual abuse cases since pornography became legal, and an even bigger drop since child pornography had started to emerge and become freely available.

One of the chief experts at the time, whose research supported this view, was the Danish criminologist Berl Kutchinsky, and opponents of the ban would often cite his data and research on the subject.
The documentary, however, features a brief interview with a Danish professor in sexology, who states that more recent studies on the same subject have not been unambiguous, with some reaffirming Kutchinsky's thoughts and others rejecting them, and that it's thus still unclear if there is a correlation. That part of the documentary was very brief, however, and did not go in-depth on what current research shows, as its focus is documenting this time period, rather than societal ramifications of child pornography.

I'm interested to hear more about what current research shows, and whether there's a larger consensus in the field on whether access to child pornography has an effect on the number of cases of child sexual abuse, based on data from this historical period in Denmark (or similar instances in other countries, where the legalisation of pornography in general was not immediately followed up by a ban on child pornography).

I'm sorry if this question doesn't fit within the scope of this subreddit - however, I figured that since most data on this subject would be well beyond the twenty year rule, the question might be acceptable. If the mods disagree, then, of course, they should feel free to delete this post.

Thank you!