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A New Zealand man was sentenced to three months in jail for possessing and viewing Japanese anime that depicted fantasy creatures having sex. Ronald Clark said he downloaded the videos three years ago as "a bit of a laugh." Clark's lawyer described the anime as depictions of "pixies and trolls" that were unlike humans. Clark is also facing an additional 10 years of penalties including a supervision order preventing him from being near areas with children.
Alan Bell, director of the anti-child pornography group ECPAT Child Alert, said the images violate New Zealand law because they encourage people "to migrate from there to the real thing." The characters' depictions as young, child-like creatures led to concerns that the anime could illicit real-world child abuse. Bell also commented that animated depictions of child abuse are a "huge" problem in Japan but noted that no child was harmed in the production of these images.
The arrested man claims that the images were not sexually arousing to him. Clark said he was interested in the explicit anime for its artistic merit. The man has previous convictions for assaulting a teenage boy and has since participated in rehabilitation programs.
Clark criticized New Zealand law because he claims it could, in theory, lead to convictions such as possessing explicit images of stick figures.
Bell said, "The distribution of [such sexual images] is damaging. You have to ask what impact does it have even if it's not harming [an individual child]."
Thanks to Config Space for the news tip.
