From
Spiked:A bespectacled graphic novel expert, Swedish translator of Japanese Manga comics and owner of over four million cartoon images, Simon Lundström is himself like a cartoon image of a nerd. But according to the Swedish courts his Manga collection is perverse.
Last year, Lundström was convicted of possession of pornographic material after 50-odd Manga images stored on his hard drive were classified as child porn. The Swedish court of appeal later agreed that 39 of the illustrated images, none of which has been banned in Japan and none of which shows real people, fitted the definition of child porn. Lundström was fined 5,000 Swedish Crowns (£500). Meanwhile, his main employer, publisher Bonnier Carlsen, has stopped giving him translating commissions, and Lundström has been burdened with a reputation of traversing the biggest taboo of our time: getting off on kids. The case has now been appealed to the Supreme Court.
This case rests on the notion that some naked cartoon characters look too much like children, and therefore that a man who enjoys them cannot be trusted. Our horror of child abuse is taking our legal system into dangerous territory, prosecuting fantasies as crimes.
From Spiked:
Well... I can't form an opinion here unless I have seen the actual pictures and the context of those pictures. The way you've written this item up, what's being done seems unreasonable and scary.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have seen plenty of objectionable Manga art. My personal belief is that it should be censored/called what it is: child porn. Too many kiddie upskirts &c.
Going after this one guy is probably not the way to deal with this issue. But--it's not grasping at straws either to identify a strain of child porn in Manga art.