Sta.sh
Confused -------------------------------------
Comic translator convicted of possessing child pornography... after police seize his collection of Japanese manga cartoons
A Swedish man is fighting a heavy fine for possession of child pornography, after police seized 51 drawings from his collection of Japanese manga cartoons. Simon Lundström, 39, who translates the comics for a living, appeared in Sweden's Supreme Court today on the first day of his attempt to overturn a ruling last year when 39 of the 51 cartoons seized from his apartment were deemed as child pornography. Japan's manga cartoons, which are intended for adults, frequently feature violent and explicit sex, in which innocent young girls falling prey to demonic men.
Mr Lundström was found guilty of possessing child pornography in 2010, and lost his first appeal against the ruling last year. He said that he was considering moving to Japan if the Supreme Court does not overturn the sentence. 'I would feel completely finished with Sweden. It feels so incredibly strange that I should be regarded as a criminal for having looked at some imaginary drawings.'
Chief prosecutor in the case, Hedvig Trost said: 'Children should never be depicted in a sexual context, regardless of whether it is in a photograph or a drawing.'
On Tuesday, Björn Sellström, the head of the Swedish Police's child pornography task force, warned that such cases risked diverting police from protecting real children from paedophiles. 'I have doubts about how a conviction will benefit those children who are victims of real abuse,' he wrote in Sweden's Dagens Nyheter newspaper. 'If the judgment stands, the risk is that the number of cases involving child pornography offences will increase. In turn will mean longer processing times for those cases involving photographs and films of child abuse in real situations.'
The Supreme Court was today shown some of the offending cartoons, which depict figures with over-sized heads and big eyes posing sexually for the viewer, and engaging in sexual activities.
-------------------------------------
So apparently, mangas are now considered child pornography. This triggered a massive debate over the ethics of lolicon in particular. Is it all right to depict illustrated children in sexually explicit scenarios? Might that not lead to incidents of child rape just as violent video games lead to murder? Some people - parents especially - suggest that readers who are aroused by these mangas are guilty as charged and that lolicon should be censored to protect children. But then when do we infringe on people's fantasies involving fictional characters and start policing thoughts? Feel free to discuss. In the meantime, I need to burn some evidence.......
