There's also a technical issue that some have predicted in terms of when computer images become too realistic, how do you tell whether it was computer generated or a real child in the video?
Regardless of what side you come down on these arguments, I definitely don't get your parent's point about morals - it's clearly a huge amount less immoral to make or view fake pictures than to actually abuse children and film/photograph it.
Well, the evidence is everybody else - saying that pedophiles will go from images of child porn to actually raping children is like saying that non-pedophiles will go from watching porn to raping people. I'm sure many, if not most people have experience with unfulfilled sexual fantasies (that celebrity? this classmate? the one that got away?).
> There's also a technical issue that some have predicted in terms of when computer images become too realistic, how do you tell whether it was computer generated or a real child in the video?
By uploading the source code/models to a police server that is then used to fingerprint videos to determine which are real and which are computer generated.
Personally I think you're right and that simulated images shouldn't be banned, but I also think I don't know nearly enough about psychology to know if I'm right.
edit to your edit about knowing real from fake images: Again, I'm no expert (this time regarding the technology rather than psychology), but there are more issues than your solution fixes. That would protect someone who was creating the images, but let's say you're a paedophile who wants to look at generated images but doesn't want to look at real images, how will you know wherever you're getting them from is telling the truth? You could be told "these are really realistic computer images" and actually be watching a real child get abused. And if the police investigate that viewing paedophile, without having models/etc uploaded (as he wouldn't have access to them) how do they know if they've discovered real or fake porn? Well I guess psychology does come into play here as I've no idea if there are paedophiles who would be willing to watch something realistic enough to not know the difference but wouldn't be willing to watch real images. Though I suspect there probably are.
Only sickos who need crime pictures to get off and pennyless pedos would get in trouble with the law...
Not sure I would want to live in that world though. And I wonder how long it would take for all non-DRMed files to be illegal once such a precedent has been set.
To be fair (and legally pedantic), following through with a fantasy involving minors is, in most circumstances, going to be legally considered rape, regardless of whether it was consensual or non-consensual.
Granted I'm talking about manga and comics, obviously not real material.
That is actually a pretty radical claim, for which I don't know that any evidence exists.
Whatever the facts are, arguing this point is a lot like the Catholic church arguing against condoms because they promote gay and immoral sex acts. There's no evidence either way, and a scientific mind would assume the null hypothesis. Furthermore I would hope we can strive to have the standards for lawmaking be held to science.
> On one hand, we have real children being abused in real life.
What we have is a law that says that children are being abused, by decree. If you heve sex with someone who's 18 minus a day, abuse has taken place and you are a rapist. Tomorrow, though, it's love.
Child sexual abuse definitely exists, as does adult sexual abuse, but you can't use age of consent, which is a mostly arbitrary legal matter (that historically nobody agrees on), to bolster a moral argument.
Because you think being exposed over and over to something does not harm someone's mind, or change their perception ?
> No, they're not sold to kids.
I'm not talking about adult ones, I'm talking about even the ones for young folks: there's plenty of hard core sexual content as well in. Check it out for yourself.
>the U.S. states in which rapes rose by 53 percent had the least Internet access between 1980 and 2000—and so the least access to Internet porn. States with the most access saw a 27 percent drop in reported rapes.
But there are so many other factors playing into this (with heightened exposure to Internet due to higher income and more free time also comes a higher level of education, which may deter rape), so the debate is still going on, but a clear "porn -> rape" correlation doesn't seem to exist.
Hello ? I'm not saying porn and rape is linked. I'm saying you can get tons of hardcore material everywhere in Japan, so why go only after the ones selling pictures ? Personally I dont see much difference between a drawing a kid being raped and an actual picture, for the end viewer. In both situations you are allowing that person to feel good about it, which is, in my view, wrong anyway.
Q: Why is child pornography illegal?
A: Because it requires real life children to be abused in real life
Q: Why is CG / drawings of child pornography controversial?
A: Because we don't know if it will lead to real children being abused in real life.
Does this answer your questions?
We also don't know whether some arbitrary behavior will result in eternal damnation, so just to be safe let's make everything forbidden in any religious text illegal. This is a very slippery slope, and I don't see any reason why we should FUD our way into banning drawings but reject Sharia law. It's the same logic.
You would not get (much) child molestation if there was no public for these images in the first place.
So on one side, it's forbidden to share pics of real children (for the reasons you mentioned), but it's fine to check/sell drawings of children being molested. It just seems very counter productive to go both ways at the same time. You can imagine that people who already enjoy drawings would also enjoy pictures and therefore actively look for them.
You don't know that. Also, your argument sounds very similar to those that blame violent video games for actual acts of violence in society; which is also a very dubious position to hold. Afterall, Japan has some very violent Anime and yet I'm pretty sure incidents of actual violence in Japan is lower than most firstworld countries.
So what do you want to do with paedophiles (which is, IMO, just as valid sexual orientation as hetero- or homosexuality, and isn't a person't choice)? Kill them all?
I see the solution that allows them a legal fulfillment of their desires (i.e. by jerking off to images) as superior to a solution that only provides illegal sources of pleasure (illegal child porn/child molestation).
Citation needed.
We are now entering the "do video games cause violence" discussion hall. We take a number. It's ZY412787A331992. The 90s LED display mounted on the south wall says "unmoderated caucus".
We take a seat, close our eyes, and relax in the echoes of decades of brouhaha.
Do you want a drink?
Actually we are not. I am merely saying that the market of legal questionable things is likely increasing the market of illegal things, not talking about pictures causing rape directly.
I don't know if it reduces the amount of child pornography created in practice (presumably the type of person that goes as far as creating evidence of such a heinous crime has already leapt off the deep end) but I can certainly see why someone would want to enact those laws. If it reduces the demand in any way and that reduces the possibility of a child being victimized I think it's worth it.
Kenji has explained the difference above:
> literally nobody was harmed in the process [of drawing pictures].
Admittedly, you add at the end:
> I dont see much difference..., for the end viewer.
but this just indicates you're missing the point: It's not at all about enforcing virtue of the end viewer. It's about preventing child abuse.
Don't you think encouraging the behavior to view drawings of child rape expands the market for actual pictures of child rape? I don't think it's too much of a stretch of imagination.
You are thinking it from the wrong side as mentioned. If someone has those urges, they will look for real or drawn pictures, but if one doesn't, it won't immediately make you want to look for it because you saw it in a manga.
As someone else mentioned: we really do not know how availability of such cartoons affects demand. It is possible that the opposite happens: that the cartoons take the market share of and thus reduce the demand for the real pictures.
Note for example that if the perversions which fuel demand for this stuff are genetically determined, then the above market dynamic is quite likely.