April 11, 2006 | Sex & Society

Cartoons as child porn

Dwight Whorley of Virginia was found guilty in November of 74 counts of child pornography. And while the convictions were not surprising -- the 52-year-old man was already on probation for similar crimes -- among them were several charges for downloading sexually explicit anime.

Whorley had downloaded "20 obscene Japanese anime cartoons that graphically depicted prepubescent female children being forced to engage in sexual intercourse with adult males," according to a U.S. Justice Department press release.

The man was sentenced to 20 years in prison last week, the result of a 2003 statute known as the PROTECT Act, which - among other provisions - criminalizes the production, distribution, or receipt of drawings, cartoons, sculptures, paintings or any other "obscene visual representation" of the sexual abuse of children.

"Whorley's conviction for receiving cartoons is the first conviction under the statute that was not based on actual photographs of children," the release continues.

The PROTECT Act is famous for its approval of a nationwide "Amber Alert" system to help locate missing children. According to AVN, however, it also contained substantial revisions to obscenity and child porn laws, a response to the porn industry's Supreme Court victory in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. In that case, the court ruled the virtual child porn provisions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1998 unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds, stating that such images are not, in fact, identical to real images of child porn.

PROTECT reintroduces the concept of cartoons as child porn and since Whorley has also been convicted of possessing real child porn he doesn't exactly invoke compassion -- no doubt something the US. Dept. of Justice is counting on.

Now that the DOJ has successfully set a precedent it can theoretically prosecute individuals who have never had a direct or indirect part in abusing children as child pornographers. Which raises the question of the purpose of such a law. Is it really to protect children - or to legislate what citizens are allowed to think?

• PROTECT Act used in conviction for non-child child porn [AVN]