Japan Moves Toward Blocking Online Child Porn

crimeandpunishment writes "In the wake of increased international demands that it do something about its legal lenience toward child pornography, Japan is beginning to take action, albeit slowly. Thursday a government task force recommended that kiddie porn sites be blocked as soon as they're discovered, instead of waiting for an investigation or arrests. Making or distributing child porn is illegal in Japan, but possession is not ... and critics have called that a legal loophole making Japan an international hub for child porn."

Comments

Re:They listen only when they want to?

[spazdor]

They dropped the bomb.

Re:Age of consent in Japan

[Kjella]

You should not confuse age of consent with the age something is considered child pornography. in Europe the age of consent ranges from 13-16 but the limit for child pornography is almost universally 18. You get a world of hurt from the "world community", meaning mostly the US, if you suggest anything lower. The age of consent don't matter that much because then the US can stick their head in the sand and pretend that if they can't see it, it isn't happening.

Re:Cencorship, etc

[HungryHobo]

2 copies of the same picture of the same abuse does not mean more abuse than 1 copy of the picture of that abuse.

or do we need to spell everything out using small words and simple sentence.

Re:animated child porn

[Luther Blisset]

That is true, but it may not last long. There are plans to vote on whether to outlaw it or not: http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=491446

Re:WWhat took them so long?

[dissy]

How do you have child porn without a victim?

With our current laws:

* Shes 17.98 years old
* Shes provably over 18, but depicting a child
* Shes a drawing
* Shes a computer generated image/video

Any of those criteria being met makes the media child porn to the law. All parties involved were fully willing adults with no victims.

Not saying any of those are the majority of child porn online, personally I'd guess it's an unfortunately small amount, but whatever the percentages there are some things the law deems child porn that do not in fact have any victims.