Nudity in childhood videos

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My eldest sister has asked me to convert all of her home VHS tape recordings starting in 1980.  I have come across two different tapes where she had recorded her daughters and a neighbor's son completely nude (including genitalia).  The first is of my eldest niece and the neighbor's son when she was two and he was three.  They are having their diapers changed in front of a room full of eight adult friends (consuming alcohol) and are allowed to run about the room completely naked.  There is a shot where the man running the recorder zooms in on my niece's posterior while she is in a compromising position.  The second tape I found is of my sister (their mother) recording her giving both of her daughters a bath.  They are ages three and seven and they too are shown completely nude.

I am expected to convert these as well and give my sister the digital copies and return the original tapes to her.  However, I am indescribably disturbed by these videos, to the point that I am almost shaking with anger.  Why would a mother find it appropriate to record her children and a neighbor boy in this manner?  I am sure that if the footage was found in my possession, that I may be arrested for possessing child pornography.

I am planning on not duplicating those parts of the tapes and telling her that if she wants those parts converted, that she will have to get them done elsewhere.

Am I right in finding this so completely deplorable? 

[weary warrior]

I originally came from a remote, poor part of the US, and when I grew up things were not viewed as they are today. There was more innocence back then. I have also spent a great deal of time overseas, and children often run around naked together until their bodies start to change at the beginning of, or just before, puberty. Today, our own society is perverse in the extreme, and I read the other day that the average girl in public school looses her virginity at 11 years old. It's a different time, and a different place. We must understand and act according to both realities, those of yesterday, and those of today.

For myself, if I were in your position, I would probably respectfully return the tapes unduplicated. For two reasons. First, you are correct, in our current society you could possible be caused some grief over child porn charges if found in possession of these videos by the wrong person. Not having seen them, I can't say for sure, but why take the chance? And I was a cop at one time, so I am not completely without some experience backing me up in this opinion.

Secondly, because they trouble you so much. When we are extremely disturbed by images, video, music ... whatever... we need to not ignore that. It is a warning, a self preservation mode, like pain for the physical body.

But, having said that, I myself wouldn't read into it unnecessarily more than needs to be there. I would not create a breach with your sister over it, and I would not automatically assume that immorality was in the wind. This is truly a cultural issue, and you can accept them living their culture while respecting and staying true to your own. I'm not talking about sin here, of course. The age at which a child looses their innocence is not written in stone, and some parents want to not take that away from their children any sooner than they have to.

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Thank you for your feedback.  I do realize that certain things were thought to be innocent at one time, like nude baby photos that show an infant nude and lying on its stomach.  Even though certain things are thought to be innocent, it does not mean that they are.  I believe indecency is indecency regardless of cultural norms.  Primitive cultures are still being indecent and sinful by being naked, even though it is their cultural norm. I am sure that many of the citizens of Sodom thought certain things were normal.

It is also a norm, in our culture, to display paintings and life-sized statues, of adult men and women, in public places and to encourage adults and children to look at them.  We allow this because it's considered "art."  Our culture allows their young daughters to wear skin tight and revealing clothing in public - including in many churches - and this is thought to be a norm.

It's also thought to be an innocent thing to allow little girls to compete in "sexy baby" pageants.

It is one thing for a child to run about without their diaper while the parent tries to catch them to put clothes back on them.  It is quite another thing to encourage it and allow a drunk neighbor intentionally record zoomed shots for later viewing.  It is one thing to give your children needed baths in the privacy of one's home.  It is quite another to take the time to set up a huge, clunky video camera, connect it to a detached recording deck, set up lights and record two naked little girls and then give that footage to a family member, ask them to duplicate it and upload it to youtube for the rest of the family to download it.

When I was a boy, I came across pictures of this same caliber, in the home of a man who I would discover later to be a pedophile.

 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Brother Stafford