Current Events > US and Japan Reject UN Proposal to Ban Various Forms of Anime, Manga, Games

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https://nichegamer.com/2019/06/03/us-and-japan-reject-united-nations-proposal-to-ban-various-forms-of-anime-manga-and-games/

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have published comments received from various nations on its Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child draft law they announced back in February.

The law came under scrutiny from some nations. While the law would be used to enforce the restriction child prostitution and media depicting sexually exploited children, they feared its terminology around the latter would be too vague.

This could result in the prosecuting of individuals not engaged in creating or viewing such material (i.e. child characters not in sexually explicit activity, or characters in sexually explicit activity that were not children).

The UN posted various responses to their proposal from various nations and organizations. The United States, Japan and Austria all laid out issues they had with the proposed law. The United States (in summary) stated they wished their own local laws to take precedent over the UNs proposed laws:

Paragraph 62: urges States parties to prohibit, by law, child sexual abuse material in any form . including when such material represents realistic representations of non-existing children.
In the United States, federal law provides that it is illegal to create, possess, or distribute a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture or painting, that depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is obscene. However, visual depictions (CGI, anime, etc.) where there is not a real child are typically protected by the First Amendment (unless the visual depictions are obscene) and the United States obligations under the ICCPR. We suggest editing the paragraph as follows: urges States parties to prohibit, by law, consistent with their national legal systems, child sexual abuse material in any form . including when such material represents realistic representations of non-existing children.
(Editors Note: Readers should be aware the URLs to the statements from all other nations and groups, with the exception of Prostasia, from this point on request to download .docx file to your computer.)

Japan also stated similar concerns, stating removing audio and written material from the law, as well as clarification on whether an allegedly offending piece of media is depicting a child.

14. Japan believes that restriction on freedom of expression should be kept to a minimum and that highly careful consideration needs to be given to the scope of child pornography. In light of this, considering that pornography is traditionally referred to as visually recognizable objects, whether it includes audio representations or written materials needs to be carefully considered. Japan thus proposes deleting audio representations; and written materials in print or online; from the third sentence of paragraph 61.

In addition, for the reasons explained above, whether penal sanctions should be imposed even if the case involves pornography of a non-existing child needs to be carefully considered. Japan proposes adding as far as it represents an existing child at the end of paragraph 61. []

Finally, Austria also expressed its concerns, stating that EU law already had a definition that they felt were more accurate.

According to the Committees proposal drawings and cartoons can be regarded as child pornography in the sense of Article 2 letter c of the OPSC. In this context, we would like to point out that the definition of child pornography in the more recent EU Directive 2011/93/EU comprises

1. depictions of a real child (Article 2 letter c (i) and (ii)
1. depictions of any person appearing to be a child (Article 2 letter c (iii)
2. realistic images of a child (Article 2 letter c (iv).

As far as drawings and cartoons do not contain realistic images, we do not see the necessity to treat them as child pornography.

Groups also expressed their concerns about the proposed law. The Japan Society For Studies in Cartoons and Comics (JSSCC) expressed concern that the context of a piece of media would not matter under the law:

First of all, we would like to stress that we sincerely respect and support the UNs efforts to protect real children from abuse and sexual exploitation.

However, the latest UN Committee on the Rights of the Childs draft guidelines seem to state that all fictional representation including through drawings and/or written prose should be subject to regulation and prohibited by law.

We argue that there would be many cases where, as stated in paragraph 64 of the draft, it may be complicated to establish with certainty if a representation is intended or used for primarily sexual purposes. This difficulty in establishing this point could cause confusion. In fact, in Japan, there were cases in which the 1999 Act of Regulation and Punishment of Acts Relating to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the Protection of Children brought about confusion in both the market and society. Soon after the law was enacted, manga such as Vagabond and Berserk, works which have received high praise for their artistry within Japan and abroad, were withdrawn from stores for the sole reason, without any regard to the context, that they depict sexual acts involving minors. This withdrawal, however, was later revoked.

These cases demonstrates that the line between whether one sees something as intended or used for primarily sexual purposes or not is very subjective.

Therefore, JSSCC is deeply concerned that the proposed guidelines lack clarity in terms of the scope of the regulation, and that what should be subject to the regulation may be decided arbitrarily, resulting in the suppression of some works unnecessary.

In the example above, Berserk features a character who was sexually abused as a child. While not intended to be for primarily sexual purposes, the JSSCC argues the proposed law as it stands would be banned under the new law- despite it not being intended to do so.

Similar comments expressing the definitions were too broad were also expressed by Prostasia, Teenagers Group Against the Prohibition of Comics Animation and Games and the Center for Japanese Language and Culture. They also expressed disagreement that such offending material- correctly identified or otherwise- would encourage real life abuses.

Other nations and groups did not express disagreement with the proposed definitions.

There are countries right now that still allow (and have significant numbers of) actual child brides. Why is the UN going after anime?
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s0nicfan posted...

There are countries right now that still allow (and have significant numbers of) actual child brides. Why is the UN going after anime?

Its the "easier problem" to resolve. Attacking fiction instead of real child brides is just that low effort.

s0nicfan posted...

There are countries right now that still allow (and have significant numbers of) actual child brides. Why is the UN going after anime?

Because they're an inept, weak organization that can't actually address serious issues, so they're going after nonissues to pretend they're still doing something.
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I get the point. Those anime shows shouldnt exist, imo

Makes me sick thinking of people jerking off to them. Yes, better than real kids, but still an icky thing
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smh lolicons win again
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Turbam posted...

smh lolicons win again

so lolicon is stuff like this

In the example above, Berserk features a character who was sexually abused as a child.

i thought it wasnt
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Berserk is the most famous loli anime
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You know how many shows have wacky situations where the MC walks in on the girl naked?

But I can see where this is abused, but Japan's love of loli is disgusting
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I don't really think Japan wants to hear fucking shit from some assholes who appointed Saudi Arabia to the Human Rights board.
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https://imgur.com/a/Sta9PQR

These are the types out to ban manga

This went about how everyone expected it to

apparently Austria also rejected the proposal
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FL81 posted...

This went about how everyone expected it to

apparently Austria also rejected the proposal

Almost read that Australia which would have been surprising considering their laws making it illegal for real women with tit sizes smaller than C cup to be in porn.
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So what even is the rationale behind banning drawings?

Unless they can provide accurate study data showing a decrease in attacks on children with the removal of fictional porn, it's a pointless battle. As with any deviant fictional fetish, people can justly be disgusted by its very existence, but I don't believe any study has shown the increase in violence or sexual assault to be influenced by consumption of media.

RoboLaserGandhi posted...

So what even is the rationale behind banning drawings?

they hate anime
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Turbam posted...

Berserk is the most famous loli anime

THEE MOST!!!!
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this is what gamers can achieve when we rise up
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GameFAQs on suicide watch
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RoboLaserGandhi posted...

So what even is the rationale behind banning drawings?

Projection
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How is wanting to ban loli anime because they include sexualizing fictional characters any different from wanting to ban violent video games because they include murdering fictional characters? In both cases, there are no real victims, nor is there any accurate study that shows that consuming these media causes an increase in the real versions of these actions. If you support this ban, then logically speaking, you should also support banning violent video games like Mortal Kombat and Battlefield based on the same principles.

It's perfectly within your rights to think that other people enjoying these media are weird or disgusting. But they aren't doing anything to bring harm to real people, so they aren't criminals and shouldn't be treated like they are.
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You know, under this law, Family Guy could be made illegal (I know some people might like that); Herbert alone, would be enough, then there's when Brian had sex with Meg. On the definition of "appearing to be a child" you could also extend that to anything with a cutesy art style such as chibi.

Also leaving cartoons, this could also be applied to any role play based material with "child" characters.
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Vita_Aeterna posted...

GameFAQs on suicide watch

Lol!
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Esrac posted...

s0nicfan posted...

There are countries right now that still allow (and have significant numbers of) actual child brides. Why is the UN going after anime?

Because they're an inept, weak organization that can't actually address serious issues, so they're going after nonissues to pretend they're still doing something.

Very much like how the UN is more concerned with female AI's then genocide.
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The US wouldn't be able to sign on to such an agreement anyway, it would be unconstitutional.
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Good, there's zero reason to ban or criminalize any form of fictional media, and anyone who insists otherwise can be easily called out as a goddamn hypocrite.
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https://imgur.com/a/gksfXEi