I don't think having child pornography on your hard drive is so bad, but it's definitely wierd as fuck. Wouldn't catch me with it... I just don't see how anyone could get any sort of sexual thrill or high from naked children. :/
It's like assuming someone is a furry just because they have furry porn on their hard drive. Difference is, child porn can convict someone. Furry porn will just get you wierd looks at worst.
Now if the guy actually raped a kid... that would be a whole different story, bro. That's not cool.
But accusations aren't to be taken likely. And in my experience, people can make some wiiiiild accusations based on a few actions that could be mis-interpreted.
For example, posting lots of nice comments on someone's blog could either be interpreted as A: being a creep or B: just being a nice guy.
Of course, it's way easier to assume someone is a pedophile if they have child pornography on their person. However, porn in and of itself is not harmful, it just severely implies that the person is capable of doing something potentially harmful at some point in the future. Which I guess is why it's considered a crime, it's more of a preventative thing.
I don't think Jared from Subway is a pedophile.
Um. Dude.
No.
Child porn is absolutely repugnant, and not because the person possessing it might be bad in the future, or because it's weird. It's heinous because actual children were abused in the production of it. And worse, the immense legal pressure against child porn means that what child porn rings do remain are usually very close to the actual assaults.