Though I consider such material disgusting, I think that possessing or viewing it causes no harm.
The creation of it, especially the pre-pubescent junk, does cause harm. Coming down hard on the possession and viewing of it is intended to discourage the demand that leads to it being made.
a line of logic that has worked out well in the other areas it has been tried.
Yes and no. Unlike those other areas, there is already a fairly small demand for pre-pubescent porn, there is no way to claim its production is at worst self-inflicted harm, and last but not least, the public support for treating all offenders harshly instead of a select subset of offenders is there.
