One law-enforcement officer recently described the Internet as providing a support group for child-sex predators. "... offenders feel normal because they see from chat rooms and Web sites that many other individuals have the same interests," he told a reporter from this newspaper.

In other words, the incessant chatter about crimes against children, complete with all its disgusting details, leads predators to commit crimes and to act out what others have discussed.

That leads to what some consider to be a touchy constitutional subject. Does government have the right to outlaw the mere discussion of something as horrible as child pornography? Does it have the right to prohibit people merely from promoting illegal images, even if those images do not in fact exist?

The question is at the heart of a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress has been struggling for years to come up with a law that gets as tough as possible against child pornography in the Internet age. But each attempt so far has been overturned as unconstitutional.

The latest version prohibits anyone from "pandering the images." An appeals court said that language is "vague and facially unconstitutional," and it overturned the pandering conviction of Michael Williams, who unwittingly offered pictures of his own 4-year-old daughter to an undercover officer online.

Now the nation's highest court is deciding whether that should stand.

We're sympathetic to arguments concerning speech. In this case, however, it is important to remember that many adult pornography sites, operating within the law, advertise that they offer images of "very young" subjects ("victims" would be a better word). Others actually use the word "child." Clearly, they are aiming to capture a certain niche of their perverted market.

In an ideal world, we would make even adult pornography illegal. It degrades its subjects (regardless of how willingly they submit themselves to be filmed), it destroys marriages, and it harms the lives of those, including children, who view it. It also helps to feed an international slave trade that has ties to prostitution and other sex crimes.

And child pornography is rampant in Utah. A local FBI official said Utah leads the nation in criminal investigations.

We hope the Supreme Court upholds the law. The harm caused by pornography and its proponents can't possibly be overshadowed by any restrictions it imposes.