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

hmm...

[theheadlessrabbit]

While child porn is certainly a very terrible thing, the rush to suppress it brings up an interesting point.

we often hear these two arguments:

possessing child porn = supports the industry and encourages further production
possessing downloaded music/movies = damages the industry and threatens further production

If downloading media is such a serious threat to the production of new content that laws have to be introduced to prevent unauthorized sharing, why isn't anyone suggesting that downloading child porn be encouraged to drive the producers out of business?

I guess one, (or both) of the above statements is false. Anyone care to take a guess which?

Re:hmm...

[Locke2005]

I've always maintained that the (legal) porn industry could be put out of business very easily simply by having governments refuse to protect the pornographer's copyrights. Making all previously produced child pron easily available for free should in theory remove the profit motive to produce more, and therefore protect further minors from exploitation. However, I'm afraid most of the people in this "business" aren't in it for the money. I also don't see any compelling societal interest in blocking the production or distribution of virtual child porn that doesn't involve any actual minors in its production. Some theorize that allowing people to view certain kinds of fantasies make them more likely to indulge in those fantasies in real life, but I've seen no scientific evidence that this is true. I play MMORPGs, but I feel no compulsion whatsoever to go around killing ogres in real life!

I was curious...

[Anonymous Coward]

and searched usenets for childporn. I found it, and then deleted it. Months later my computer was seized by law enforcement because the guy I was renting a room from was under investigation for a completely separate matter.

The deleted cp was discovered and I was charged with posession. No jail time, but did have to work at the local animal shelter for a couple days a week for a couple months. The lawyer bill was about $4,000.

I would probably be much more bitter about the whole episode had I ended up being a Registered Sex Offender. Turns out that in my state the offender registry is reserved for the more serious offenses.

Witches are being hunted down, non-believers are being tortured: it's easy to see all our technological progress and think that we've progressed far beyond the fire and stake.

--

Re:Outlawing possession is naive and pointless.

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

If police need search warrants they can find other ways to get them but having a search warrant which only leads to digital copies of evidence of the crime does not actually solve or prevent the crime.

But it sure makes for good PR. Much better headlines to say you've busted hundreds of icky pervs than to say you busted one guy who has a well documented track record of hurting kids.

Re:Cencorship, etc

[QCompson]

People that seek this out are just as responsible as the people making the content.

I have trouble understanding this logic. Someone who seeks out a picture of a child being abused (say on a free p2p network) are just as responsible as the person who actually abused the child? There's no difference to you? Really?

You can be damned sure that if you were paying someone to make snuff tapes you'd be charged along with the producers.

Maybe, under a conspiracy charge, yes. Yet if you were just seeking out snuff tapes you wouldn't be charged. Or if you just possess snuff tapes. Or even if you pay someone for snuff tapes after the fact. By that logic we could charge people with conspiracy to commit sexual abuse of a child if they were paying for a child to be abused before it actually occurred, and thus our current child porn laws would be unnecessary. Otherwise your analogy is completely false.

Re:HAVE YOU ALL FUCKING LOST IT?

[QCompson]

I haven't seen any posts here claiming that child pornography is a positive thing. They are just disputing the rationality of penalizing aspects of it.

But again, you're avoiding the question. Do you think a 16 year old taking a sexual picture of themselves should be illegal or not?

Re:Outlawing possession is naive and pointless.

[Rakshasa Taisab]

"We're making an appeal today to build a society without child pornography," said Anges Chan, a UNICEF ambassador and well-known media personality in Japan. "We're trying to build a national movement to appeal to the government to outlaw the possession of child pornography."

Agnes Chan... the very same former gravure idol that made a plea for donations to Somali children from her super-gaudy luxury mansion? The one that is famous for ad hominem attacks when complex issues relating to privacy are discussed in the diet?...

She's the Sarah Palin of Japan.