comics and the coroners and justice bill

[DavidMWW]

I noticed there was a discussion about child pornography. This clearly is outlawed for the harm done to children in its production. But what about cartoon child porn? Possession of this is an offence - but it is a victimless crime.

Last year the Coroners and Justice Bill introduced a law which forbade possession of non-photographic images of "children"
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmbills/009/09009.25-31.html#j3_100a

This outlaws a lot of anime and hentai, making criminals of collectors of such things. Alan Moore's Lost Girls would seem to fall foul of this law, although nobody has yet tried to prosecute.

I'd just like to say that I have no interest in cartoon child porn. I bring it up solely for discussion purposes. This is only my second post, and I don't want people thinking I'm a pervert

[AndrewTindall]

there was similar legislation introduced in s63 and surrounding sections of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.

the problem with this sort of censorship is that you can't oppose it without being accused of possessing / being interested in that which is being banned.

[Duke]

This is the sort of thing that really needs to go to trial before a sensible judge. While I understand while they introduced the non-photographic part (it was designed to close a loop-hole whereby child abuse images could be put on a computer, edited slightly and then become legal), it really is quite stupid, particularly as we already have the crime of possessing "obscene materials" iirc. There was already a case in Australia whereby (iirc) some 'adult' cartoon involving Lisa Simpson was ruled to be a child abuse image and someone arrested, possibly imprisoned for it. Fortunately there was a recent case in the UK where something similar (involving text) was ruled not to be obscene or something so there may be hope.

Anyways, personally, child abuse is a crime and should be. Paedophilia is not a crime and shouldn't be. These sort of images lie in-between and a line needs to be drawn somewhere. I'd draw the line much closer to the abuse end, but that is just me (I'm generally of the opinion that if something doesn't harm anyone, it shouldn't be a crime).

[scuzzmonkey]

pictures are pictures at the end of the day.

the problem I see with this though is the argument that "well if some person looks at these images, what stops them going out and abducting some kid and going through with the fantasies"

frankly, there is no way to prove one way or another that this argument is valid or not, however I have heard (although I do not know for certain if it is true or not) that in Japan they give convicted paedophiles hentai images when in rehab - whether this is true or not ofc I don't know...and frankly I don't want to google it to find out - lol.