The justice system is failing millions of child porn victims, with sexual predators often having their sentences suspended. The failure stems from the fact that a minimum sentence is not specified in certain sections of the Films and Publications Act, or of the Sexual Offences Act, in terms of which people caught in possession of, or distributing, child porn are prosecuted.The SA Law Reform Commission has called for a public debate after the imposition of a number of sentences condemned as overly lenient, such as the suspended sentence given to Cape Town civil engineer Andries Petrus Retief.Last month 37-year-old Retief pleaded guilty to luring children to his Durbanville farm and taking pornographic photographs and videos of them. He was given an eight-year prison sentence, suspended for five years, after pleading guilty to 2130 counts involving the manufacture and possession of child pornography.Suspended sentences were also handed down to seven South African men, including teachers, arrested during an international operation that began in November when Canadian police alerted the South African authorities to an international child porn ring run from this country.Of the nine men arrested worldwide, only one received a five-year-prison sentence after being found guilty of manufacturing child porn.Lieutenant-Colonel Heila Neimand, commander of the Gauteng police's family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, said: "Often, because there is no 'physical' victim [appearing] before a court, suspended sentences are given."Courts need to know that, for such an image to be created, abuse must occur with the abuse continuing every time the image is distributed."Luke Lamprecht, of the Johannesburg Child Advocacy Forum, said: "Pornography is illegal if you are under 18, whether viewing or taking part."These are crime scene images, images of rape and torture."He said the consumer of child porn pictures was an accomplice."The addict who collects and distributes them creates a market and is not only an accessory after the fact but an accomplice to the rape of children, a crime that carries a minimum sentence of life."..