seriously, he actually did this
Call to ban child abuse Japanese anime and manga
25 FEBRUARY 2020
Child exploitation is a global problem, heightened by modern technology and the myriad of platforms that are used to access such material. Only last week the heads of the three law enforcement agencies addressed the National Press Club warning of the problems Australia is trying to fight in respect to online child exploitation, and the Prime Minister said that he would kick down doors to save an abused child. As legislators, we have a critical role to play in stamping it out. There is much more to be done, and areas where we need to focus more attention, such as the child abuse material that comes into Australia via Japanese amine and manga.
Anime is a style of Japanese animation and manga are the graphic novels which serve as the basis for anime. They both share a unique visual style and they are popular the world over, especially amongst teenagers. But there is, unfortunately, a dark side and a disgusting side to anime and manga, with a significant proportion of the two media featuring child abuse material. They contain depictions of wide-eyed children, usually in school uniforms, engaged in explicit sexual activities and poses, and often being sexually abused.
Experts that advocate against child exploitation have referred to this type of anime and manga as a gateway to the abuse of actual children. Experts also say that explicit anime and manga can be used by paedophiles as tools to groom children. It makes me sick to the stomach to even speak about this.
Incredibly, in Japan the definition of child abuse material specifically excludes child porn anime and manga, as these media don't include real children. Chaku ero, which means erotically clothed, is a type of child exploitation material that features sexualised images of actual children and it remains legal in Japan as long as it doesn't involve full nudity. So sexualised images are legal, provided they don't involve full nudity. How does that work? Every expert combating child exploitation will tell you that this is very wrong.
At the time of the 2014 changes to child pornography laws in Japan, lobbyists on behalf of the Japan Cartoonists Association argued that a total ban on explicit content would damage the entire industry. Their argument was that imaginary images, unlike real child abuse, mean that no-one is actually hurt. I don't buy that argument. Child pornography, even in animated form, i