The porn industry, under the auspices of its Free Speech Coalition lobby group, along with the ACLU and the National Coalition Against Censorship, oppose the law because it criminalizes the act of making a picture. The CPPA's treatment of virtual porn makes thought a crime, they say. It punishes a crime that has no victim, sends people to jail for 30 years for presenting the possibility of crime. Hatch and supporters of the CPPA, which include the Justice Department, argue that virtual child porn promotes pedophilia. A reasonable enough sounding argument but one without grounding in fact.
Some pedophiles even argue that child porn curbs their urges.
Whatever the case may be, we can be certain that simply outlawing virtual child porn is not going to stop pedophilia. That would likely take something more along the lines of Ludvico's Technique. If pedophiles took the government's assent as an endorsement, it would be their funeral. Any attempts by pedophiles to go mainstream would undoubtedly bring the lynch mobs, or more likely the butcher knives. The porn industry is never as far removed from Hollywood as Hollywood likes to have you think.