The Glorious Technology of Child Porn
Posted at 1:13 PM May 06, 2008
Although child porn and the children who are exploited and abused to make it is a disturbing thought for pretty much any thinking person (whatever their feelings are about consensual adult porn), it's a topic that very few writers and researchers will touch. This is largely due to the taboo and disturbing nature of the subject, but also has a hell of a lot ot do with the barriers to doing research. It's pretty difficult to stay within the law and/or not be traumatized by the subject if you're giving it some deep thought.
However, award-winning journalist Debbie Nathan is not afraid. For a number of years, she's done in-depth coverage of the “ritual sex abuse” panics of the 1980s and the residual fall out around this subject. It's an intense subject, one that she admits to being a bit obsessed by. In a recent post on her blog, Nathan writes about attending a conference about forensics, in which the developments in computer generated imagery (CGI) and the relationship to the production of child porn were explored at length.
While it is illegal to make or look at pornography using real live underage people, it is not illegal to produce and own CGI pornography with figures that appear to be underaged. Five or ten years ago this wasn't a huge issue - it was easy to tell real photos and digital compositions apart. But that's no longer the case. And as Nathan writes, child pornographers are now beginning to make real pictures look digital so they can skate by under the radar.
It's a really creepy fusion of exploitative crime and new technologies, and chances are high that some really weird combination of technophobia, attempts to punish pedophiles, and desire to protect children will meld to forge a new law. Just what that will be remains to be seen.
--Audacia Ray
[Image is a still from the CGI feature Polar Express]
more: Media Critic
In many countries of the world, the U.K. for example, the possession of CGI or even collaged 'child porn' is treated no differently from possession of the real thing i.e. the punishments are real and usually involve a prison sentence.
Even art by world-renowned artists is not immune.
As always, the law is not concerned with nuance or intention.
Posted by: ark at May 6, 2008 2:56 PM
Harmful to Minors by Judith Levine covers the child porn topic, as well as other "scary" areas of children and sexuality intersecting and how panics get started.
Posted by: Furry Girl at May 6, 2008 5:08 PM
Kind of not related
I remember I came across this japanese sex product called Shota sex doll (shota meaning prepubescent boy; there is a female equivalent probably called Loli?? Sex doll) which is exacatly as bizarre as it sounds. Its legally sold. I can't read japanese, but i know those two characters on the box picture are from a sexually explicit shota anime.
http://bp3.blogger.com/_e3BsDt7_O88/R2eEDMqOEzI/AAAAAAAAMO4/ZG2YjOGeJVg/s1600-h/119653940933.jpg
I'm not very well versed on Japanese culture, but I"ve read enough and watched enough of my share of mangas & anime to deduce that child porn and erotica (in animation) seems more normalized. I mean normalized in a sense that the presense of child porn/erotica/romance stories in anime and manga is not something obscure and is not usually presented as soemthing "dark or intense". Actually, if its not sexually explicit, it isn't even considered "pornography" at all (even if sex is implied). It also seems that its common for a wider variety of folks to enjoy, even if its teenage girls thinking "oh how cute!!". I don't want that to get misinterpreted into being that child porn is totally acceptable over there because as far as I know, its still tabooed and illegal in Japan outside the realm of animation. I'm not moralizing here and posing their practices to be better nor worse. I just think that cultural differences in that particular media practice and reception is interesting to think about when talking about child pornography and what not.
While that may not sound all that new or interesting to those who already knows that, I think the whole child sex doll takes it to a whole other level. though the production of it involves no physical child, its still plenty creepy.
Posted by: Aleax at May 7, 2008 4:48 AM
