I'm not interested in what you think on a personal level, I'll probably ignore or lash back at anyone posting ignorant comments about paedophilia.
Apparently, in the UK, the Government published a consultation on 1 April this year, announcing plans to create a new offence of possessing a computer generated picture, cartoon or drawing with a penalty of three years in prison and an unlimited fine.
It is my personal belief that doing so would be foolish.
Look at it this way; Take a standard, run of the mill, paedophile. He leads a normal life, getting his jollies in the evenings by reading the, currently-legal, lolicon manga he downloads from Japan. Suddenly, he is no longer able to obtain or posess this outlet for his "subversive" desires.
Doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me... Ok, so he stops for a while... but then, his desires are going to get the better of him, and he'll start downloading again. And hell, he's already breaking the law with his mangas, why not grab some photos and video too? Or even worse, perhaps he'll pop out into the next county and grab himself a real little lolita.
Diamond and Uchiyama suggest that there is a strong correlation between the dramatic rise of pornographic material in Japan from the 1970s onwards and a dramatic decrease in reported sexual violence, including crimes by juveniles and also the number of assaults on children under 13. They cite similar findings in Denmark and West Germany, and conclude that the widespread availability of sexually explicit material can in fact reduce the rate of sexual crimes. Diamond and Uchiyama also state, however, that it is probable that the reduction of sex crimes by and upon juveniles in Japan is due to other factors as well: the demands of the increasingly competitive educational system on children's time, an increase in consensual sexual outlets such as prostitution and pre-marital sex, and "socially positive proactive forces" such as sex education in schools and stronger family supervision at home.
So, Codex, what is your rational and objective opinion, if you can muster such a thing?