child pornography and sexual exploitation of children online

Prevention Act of 1996, stating that virtual child pornography created without real or
identifiable minors was unconstitutionally overbroad (Quayle, 2008). The US Court stated
that, “Virtual child pornography is not ‘intrinsically related’ to the sexual abuse of children.
While the Government asserts that the images can lead to actual instances of child abuse,
the causal link is contingent and indirect. The harm does not necessarily follow from the
speech, but depends upon some quantified potential for subsequent criminal acts”. It
might be thought that these ‘pseudo-photographs’ complicate our understanding of the
problem and challenge our understanding of harm. Harm, however, need not always be
harm towards a specific child. This is where concerns about sexual exploitation arise. Most
legislation against the distribution and possession of child abuse images builds on the
fact that even unaware victims somehow come to harm, much in the way described by
King (2008), and the increased number of abusive images in circulation may add to the
likelihood that children are seen as possible objects of real abuse.
In 2003, Taylor and Quayle wrote that, “Pseudo-photographs are constructed photographs,
often very cleverly done with great technical sophistication, using digital reconstruction
techniques to create an image that is not a photograph of a real person, or of real events.
Thus the head of a child might be placed onto the body of a woman, where the body
features are manipulated to make it appear to be that of a child (breast reduced in size or
eliminated, and pubic hair eliminated)…”. However, while the production of such material
might have been a technological challenge a few years ago, this would not be the case today.
With the advent of software packages such as Adobe Photoshop, the majority of us would
be able to create quite complex digitally altered images. The prediction that as computeraided
animation and 3D computer graphics become easier and more accessible there will
be a growth in animated child pornography, wholly constructed as computer images, has
become a reality, although it is unclear what impact this might have on the availability of
such image distribution.
One of the primary producers of such imagery is Japan where there is a huge market in
manga, and other forms of animation, that many believe are sexually exploitative. A report
in the UK’s Guardian newspaper (Guardian, 2008) suggested that sexually explicit comics
account for a large proportion of Japan’s Yen 500 bn manga market, with many featuring
schoolgirls or childlike adults being raped or engaged in sadomasochism. However, the
article suggested that manga belonging to the popular ‘lolicon’ – Japanese slang for Lolita
complex – genre are likely to escape the proposed ban in Japan on the possession of child
pornography, “as MPs are concerned that outlawing them could infringe on freedom of
expression and drive men who use them as an outlet for their sexual urges to commit
more serious sexual offences”. In the final report of the Japanese National Police Agency
External Experts Study Group on Protection of Children from Harmful Effects of Virtual
18|Child Pornography and Sexual Exploitation of Children Online