Lolicon

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Lolicon (Japanese: ロリコン, rorikon^?), in the western world, is a genre of manga-style sexual artwork involving childlike female characters. The equivalent genre focused on male characters is shotacon. The term is borrowed from Japan, where it is a slang portmanteau short for Lolita complex. In Japanese, it refers to an attraction to girls below the age of consent,<ref name="TheLoliComplex">Russell Trainer,The Lolita Complex 飯田隆昭訳　ISBN 4884680081</ref> or an individual attracted to such a person.

1 Lolicon in Japan
2 Lolicon in the West
3 Controversy and legal issues
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 External links

[edit] Lolicon in Japan

Lolicon is a Japanese portmanteau of Lolita complex, a term derived from Vladimir Nabokov's book Lolita. Generally, it is a term used to describe an attraction to any girl beneath the age of consent, both perceived and actual pedophilia and ephebophilia. Strictly speaking, Lolita complex in Japanese refers only to the paraphilia itself, but the abbreviation lolicon can refer to an individual that has the paraphilia as well. Lolicon is a widespread phenomenon in Japan, where it is a frequent subject of scholarly articles.<ref name="adultmanga">Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8248-2318-4</ref> Many general bookstores and newsstands openly offer illustrated lolicon material.

Sexual manga featuring children or childlike characters are called lolicon manga.<ref>Gelder, Ken. The Subcultures Reader, 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge, 2005. p. 547. ISBN 0-415-34415-8</ref><ref name="adultmanga"/> These are generally legal in Japan, although child pornography was outlawed in 1999.<ref>Tim Richardson, "Child porn banned in Japan". The Register, 18 May 1999</ref> Some lolicon manga also include crossdressing and futanari.<ref name="adultmanga"/>

[edit] Lolicon in the West

The meaning of lolicon has evolved much in the West (as have the meanings of other words such as anime, otaku and hentai). In the West, lolicon refers to anime or manga that contains sexual or erotic portrayals of prepubescent or childlike characters, and is thus close cognate to the Japanese term lolicon manga.<ref>Lolicon entry at Wiktionary</ref> The use of the word lolicon is an indication that the material is overtly—even if not explicitly—erotic.<ref name=amrgloss>Glossary Entry: Lolicon Anime Meta-Review web site URL accessed May 13, 2006</ref>

[edit] Controversy and legal issues

Opponents of illustrated lolicon pornography claim that fictional material encourages viewing children as sex objects and can incite actual sexual abuse.<ref>President Signs PROTECT Act: President's Remarks Upon Signing of S. 151, the Protect Act (30 April 2003). Retrieved January 28, 2006.</ref> However, there is no evidence to support these claims of causality.<ref> The Early Window Liebert, R. M., Neale, J. M., & Davison, E. S. ISBN 0-08-017091-9</ref> Despite the fact that most lolicon artwork is produced in Japan, there is no evidence that it has caused an increase of violent crimes against children and teens. The number of reported incidents of crime against children in Japan, as well as violent crime in general, is well below that of most other developed countries.<ref>Pornography, Rape and Sex Crimes in Japan International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22(1): 1-22. 1999.</ref>

[edit] Legal status in Canada

Section 163.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code defines child pornography as "a visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means", that "shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity", or "the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years." The definitive Supreme Court of Canada decision, R. v. Sharpe, interprets the statute to include purely fictional material even when no real children were involved in its production. From paragraph 38 of the decision:

Interpreting "person" in accordance with Parliament's purpose of criminalizing possession of material that poses a reasoned risk of harm to children, it seems that it should include visual works of the imagination as well as depictions of actual people. Notwithstanding the fact that 'person' in the charging section and in s. 163.1(1)(b) refers to a flesh-and-blood person, I conclude that "person" in s. 163.1(1)(a) includes both actual and imaginary human beings.
—Supreme Court of Canada, R. v. Sharpe, Paragraph 38<ref>R. v. Sharpe (26 January 2001). Retrieved February 20, 2006.</ref>

In October 2005, Canadian courts sentenced an Edmonton, Alberta man to one year of community service for importing manga depicting child sex, possibly the first manga-related child pornography case in Canada.<ref>Anime News Network (20 October 2005). Retrieved January 20, 2006. </ref> The man was on probation at the time for possession of child pornography that featured real children.

In April 2006, an American was sentenced to 30 days in jail for bringing child pornography to Canada. While he had possession of three videos and three images of real children, a criminal investigator cited the 13,000 "mostly cartoon" or "anime" images in his possession and the "prohibitive nature of these goods".<ref>CBC News (April 4 2006)</ref>

[edit] Legal status in Germany

German law does not discriminate between actual and "realistic" sexual depictions of children. Whether or not this includes Lolicon is yet unclear.<ref> Interpol (8 Jan 2003) Retrieved January 20, 2006. </ref>

[edit] Legal status in Hungary

According to the latest definition of the act (Law 1997/LXXIII., Penal Code 195/A. §), "Production of Forbidden Pornography" is only forbidden if an underage person actually suffered through the production process. Due to this, any sort of graphics that were produced without using actual live models, or those using live models that were not sexually abused is legal. (Similarly it is legal if the resulting graphics is not original but a derivative of two or more pictures, in where the original picture of the underage person contains no matter violating the above paragraph of the Code. It does not need to bear any express label that the material was produced by any of those methods; and it is the task of the State to prove guilty, not of the defendant to prove innocent, which, with the recent developments in computer graphics, might be a burdensome if not impossible task.)

[edit] Legal status in the Netherlands

On October 1, 2002, the Netherlands introduced legislation (Bulletin of Acts and Decrees 470) which deemed "virtual child pornography" as illegal.<ref> Justitie (1 October 2002). Retrieved January 20, 2006. </ref> The laws appear to only outlaw "realistic images representing a minor engaged in a sexually explicit conduct," and hence lolicon is not included.<ref>Draft Convention on Cyber-crime (25 April 2000). Retrieved January 20, 2006.</ref>

[edit] Legal status in Norway

Any images or videos that depict pornography in a childish context (which also even would include i.e. an adult model with childish clothes/toys/surroundings)<ref>(Norwegian) Lovdata - Straffeloven, 19. kapittel, Seksualforbrytelser, § 204a</ref> are to be considered child pornography. Lolicon are therefore counted as child pornography, and not legal, in Norway (although this has not been proved by Norwegian court). So far, however, this law has only been used to sentence individuals in possession of real child porn.<ref>(Norwegian) Lovdata - Straffeloven, 19. kapittel, Seksualforbrytelser, § 204 - "Pornoloven" ("The porn law")</ref>

[edit] Legal status in South Africa

With the promulgation of the "Films and Publications Amendment Bill" in September 2003, a broad range of simulated child pornography became illegal in South Africa. For the purposes of the act, any image or description of a person "real or simulated" who is depicted or described as being under the age of 18 years and engaged in sexual conduct, broadly defined, constitutes 'child pornography'.<ref>Films and Publications Amendment Bill of 2003 (104kb pdf file). Retrieved on 14 January, 2006.</ref> Under the act, anyone is guilty of an offence punishable by up to ten years imprisonment if he or she possesses, creates or produces, imports, exports, broadcasts, or in any way takes steps to procure or access child pornography.

[edit] Legal status in Sweden

Any images or videos that depict children in a pornographic context are to be considered child pornography in Sweden, regardless of how realistic or abstract they are.<ref>(Swedish) Frågor och svar om sexuella övergrepp mot barn</ref> This means that lolicon is considered to be child pornography and is therefore illegal in Sweden. It has, however, not yet been tried in court.

[edit] Legal status in the United Kingdom

UK law has dealt with simulated images quite differently since 1994, when the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act introduced the legal definition of an "indecent pseudo-photograph of a child", which is prohibited as if it were a true photograph (it should be noted, however, that this law is unlikely to include lolicon, as the Act goes on to define a pseudo-photograph as an image "which appears to be a photograph"). The application, if any, to lolicon is as yet untested.

[edit] Legal status in the United States

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Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996

The Supreme Court of the United States decided in 2002, and affirmed in 2004, that previous prohibition of simulated child pornography under the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 was unconstitutional.<ref>Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. Retrieved on 12 January, 2006.</ref> The majority ruling stated that "the CPPA prohibits speech that records no crime and creates no victims by its production. Virtual child pornography is not 'intrinsically related' to the sexual abuse of children."

On 30 April 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the PROTECT Act of 2003 (also dubbed the Amber Alert Law) which again criminalizes cartoon child pornography.<ref>Bush signs child protection bill. Retrieved on May 1, 2003.</ref>, so far as it would be found obscene under the Miller test. In December 2005, Dwight Whorley was convicted under this law<ref>Richmond man first convicted under expanded child-porn law. Retrieved on 12 January, 2006.</ref> for receiving both "...obscene Japanese anime cartoons that graphically depicted prepubescent female children being forced to engage in genital-genital and oral-genital intercourse with adult males," and "...digital photographs of actual children engaging in sexually explicit conduct."<ref>U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of Virginia (2006-03-10). Whorley Sentencing. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-05-14.</ref><ref>U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of Virginia (2005-11-30). Whorley Verdict. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-05-14.</ref> Neither Whorley's, nor any other conviction under this law has been reviewed by the Supreme Court. However, the reason that "lolicon" was used against him in his trial was because he was on parole from prison, and the charge that put him there was having child porn also. Having any depiction of "child porn", this includes lolicon, violated his parole.<ref>Virginia Man Sentenced in Landmark Obscenity Case. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved on 2006-09-15. (March 10 2006)</ref>

[edit] See also

Shotacon, the male equivalent of lolicon.
Bishōnen, often the subject of female desire towards underage boys.
Shōnen-ai, or 'Boys Love'. Mostly drawn by women and marketed to a female audience.
Moé, a similar aesthetic.