There's a lot of discussion of the difference. I think we have to accept outside of this forum, no one really cares. I mean in the UK, even drawn images are illegal. Not sure if stories are, but the general public would not complain if they were...they just want to label it as all the same thing. It works wonders for police too, who will leave illegal materials up on the website rather than close it immediately, because they can describel anyone they find looking at it as a "maker" of indecent images. Meanwhile REAL creators (ie abusers) are rarely charged, and there is no incentive for police to do so, when that would remove the material they will use to arrest hundreds of other viewers...which they will call "makers".

When police say they have "protected X children as part of this investigation", I often wonder how many of those children were "protected" in the last investigation, and go on to be "protected" in the next.. and in fact have been "protected" by police time after time since they were abused decades ago.