When it comes to ALL laws my opinion has always been that ‘If it doesn’t unconsensually hurt anyone then have at it’. This applies to my opinion on drug laws, prostitution laws and (as seen in the title) pornography laws. Now I’m sure we are all aware that child abuse of any kind DOES hurt someone, generally the child’s mental and sometimes even physical state. This is a very good reason for banning child pornography, if only to stop the supply and demand that leads to causing this abuse. (As bizarre as it sounds I’d have nothing against said pornography if no harm or abuse took place in it’s creation, but most countries have age of consent laws for a reason.)
HOWEVER, upon looking at the desire to ban both animated and created images, which doesn’t involve any child or harming ANYONE in the process, I was beginning to ask myself a few questions. Should this ban affect those kinds of pornography as well?
No, it shouldn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of fan-service or any of that kind of the ‘harder’ stuff for that matter, but that’s just MY tastes and I have no desire to force them on anyone else. Along with every other pornography, if that’s what you’re into then fill your boots, I’m not one to judge. Just as long as the ‘supply’ part of the supply and demand of this porn doesn’t involve mentally or physically scarring some kid (or anyone) you won’t ever meet.
Now there are some arguments that people might use to try to justify this banning, one such argument being the ‘slippery slope’ fallacy. Yes, that’s right, the slippery slope argument is a fallacy. They tried to use the same argument with marijuana in the war on drugs, calling it a ‘gateway drug’. The problem with young people is that they don’t like being lied to and for good reason, because when they try pot and realize it isn’t as bad as their parents or teachers have told them then it’s reasonable that they might wonder what other drugs they have been lied to about as well. But the pot didn’t CAUSE them to try other drugs just like pornography doesn’t CAUSE sexual abuse. If anything there is evidence to the opposite effect.
Here are the reported rape statistics in Japan from 2003 – 2010; the time when the internet had become widely used. This is a trend seen globally.Now I’m not saying that the internet caused this drop (correlation doesn’t mean causation) but there does seem to have been a drastic decrease from the past after it became commonly used and porn became widely accessible through it.
To put it plainly, drawings and animation are not children, nor are they made by children, or are generally shown to children (*pfft* assuming the 18+ system works). They do not involve children in any way, as is needed for it to be defined as child pornography. Saying a representation of something IS the something it represents is like confusing a map of a country for the country itself, and by burning it you’re burning the entire country.
But in the end that isn’t what this is all about.
When it comes to the banning of things that don’t cause harm to anyone it all comes down to one thing, people saying; ‘I don’t like the thought of you enjoying something and therefore you shouldn’t be able to enjoy it’. It’s easy for people to say this about certain porn fetishes because their niches can be disturbing for others who don’t share those tastes. But if someone were to say that to me about Fantasy Books or Anime, I would tell them to go fuck themselves and to mind their own business. It has nothing to do with them.
Fantasy and Anime 
“It’s easy for people to say this about certain porn fetishes because their niches can be disturbing for others who don’t share those tastes. But if someone were to say that to me about Fantasy Books or Anime, I would tell them to go fuck themselves and to mind their own business. It has nothing to do with them.”
THIS.
Hah, I hope you’d think the same if someone tried to criticize you on your favored nishe of fluffy-yuri shows.
If I were sure that allowing access to drawn content wouldn’t lead to any real-world crimes, then that would be absolutely fine. Taking what you’ve said at face value, that means I agree with your opinion.
What I want to talk about, though, has a lot more to do with the picture associated with your article. I feel that the ages of video game and anime characters often fall way off the mark. When characters who act and look like adults are suddenly said to be only 14 years old then something’s gone wrong XD Now, i’m not saying this is a terrible thing that affects my enjoyment of said games or series (I mean, half of the time I have no idea how old characters are), just that I find it odd. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?
To be honest I’ve met 20 year olds that look like teens and I’ve seen teens that look 20 (*ahem* Jailbait). Some people do mature faster than others so I wouldn’t find it much of a stretch. But then again, unless it’s like comic relief moments, as you said age isn’t always mentioned much in anime.
As someone who detests censorship I agree. If pedos want to satisfy their urges on cartoons then that is surely better than them watching the real thing.
Herehere!