It was not long ago that homosexuality was also categorized as deviation in psycho-sexual development. The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1952. In 1968, DSM-II also listed homosexuality as a mental disorder. Not until 1987 did homosexuality completely fall out of the DSM. Pedophilia is in the DSM just, as opposed to Homosexuality, because it could possibly cause harm to others - that’s the sole distinction.
There were no big studies regarding the effects of consuming child porn, but the little there is seems to suggest it does not exacerbate the condition, or lead to higher probability of a physical offense: https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-244X-9-43
Moreover, child pornography seems to be a protective factor, according to Diamond, Jozifkova and Weis (2010). They examined the number of sexual offenses that took place in Czechoslovakia from the 70’s till the end of 2007. At the end of 1989 the velvet revolution took place; the Czech Republic became a democracy and the prohibition of pornography was lifted. During the next 17 years child pornography was accepted. Initially one would expect that the number of sexually abused children would increase, but Diamond and his colleagues concluded the opposite. During the same 17 years, they found a decrease in the number of cases of sexual abused children. Also in Japan and Denmark child sexual abuse decreased in the period when child pornography was not prohibited.
In fact, there’s a suggested investigation for treatment utilizing virtual child porn.
Well done :) I specifically best like 3, but my description probably applies to all of them.