I’m having a debate with a friend about child pornography and bishoujo games (and hentai). I was saying that the characters in these games must be 18 or over or else it could be called child pornography and be illegal in the US. He said that there is some federal ruling stating that a drawing is not an actual person and does no harm to anyone except maybe the person viewing it so cannot be called child pornography. Therefore, it’s unnecessary that games and hentai state that characters are 18 or over. Who’s right here?
yes, the federal judge in the states did overrule that virtual stuff isn’t illegal.
yes, it’s not illegal, but the law only applies to the united states of america. it doesnt necessarily mean that the same law can be applied to other countries. there have been numerous times where people have asked about this on the BBS. however, what they (americans i assume, since this is a US law after all) failed to do is to think outside the box.
to answer your actual question, since we, as a company, sell games internationally, and given the “international” nature of the internet, we have to be think for the people outside of the US as well. i hope that answers your question.
To be more specific, the law in the US was ridiculously overbroad (and each version Congress has tried to pass has had the same problems).
People could get in trouble for depicting someone who was supposed to be a minor (which is what they were after) but also if ANYone could “reasonably think” a minor was being portrayed, even if it was not actually a minor. There were further no exceptions - so, for instance, pediatricians were on record saying “look, under this law it is illegal for us to distribute or possess autopsy photos of children, or anatomy diagrams”. Silly things like that tend to get laws struck down.
More or less, if I understand correctly, they’ll probably never be able to make anime-styled images illegal for the same reasons they can’t ban violent video games.
All of this is US-only, of course. I can’t speculate as to foreign laws.
[This message has been edited by Nandemonai (edited 01-01-2005).]
But seriously, who in their right mind can say Hentai is illegal just because they “look” like they’re underage?
Visited a high school lately? I mean they just get smaller and smaller every year…I’ve had my share of 18 year-olds that look like they’re 12.
quote:
Originally posted by BluntWeapon:
But seriously, who in their right mind can say Hentai is illegal just because they "look" like they're underage?Visited a high school lately? I mean they just get smaller and smaller every year...I've had my share of 18 year-olds that look like they're 12.
Ha ha! you're right! with a friend we say that we are the last 'tall generation' because we are about 1.80 and his brother who is 2 years younger is about 1.70...
I’ve been noticing this too. When I look at kids that are 12 year old, they look much younger than people of my age looked at the time.