James Kite of Serenity Studios in Sydney, Australia follows up on his previous Talk Back post regarding manga censorship (see “James Kite of Serenity Studios on Manga Censorship”):

Well, it's official... the world is nuts.

Previously I explained that here in Australia we had a whole issue over actual photos of nude children being seen as child pornography and in the end deemed PG-13 and works of art.

Today I find out that a local man has been fined $3,000 and required to enter into a two-year good behavior bond in respect to each of the charges for having on his computer a copy of one (or possibly more) of the images I mentioned existed on the internet (a Simpsons based image).  Fairly sure since I got the new computer I haven't stumbled onto any... but certainly makes me wonder if I should be worried in case something has loaded I haven't paid attention  to.

Interesting to think that a cartoon is deemed worse than actual photos... though the fact that one is sexualized and the other isn't.

Then again, Australia is about to implement (apparently by Christmas) a China style ISP level filter to block "undesirable" content which will block restricted sites to all and "objectionable content" to everyone who fails to opt-out.  This works well if they decide to slow Internet connections down by 80%, and if they simply go for the 2% slowdown then far more false positives occur (including apparently sites dedicated to protecting children from such abuse due to their content).  Now the question on this tangent I find of concern is where will it stop (here, the USA, the UK or wherever)...particularly with comments such as...

However it was also to deter the production of other material, including cartoons, that could "fuel demand for material that does involve the abuse of children."

* ...and how that may reflect on such artists as H.R.Giger where some of his work could be seen by some as involving the depiction of abuse of children (here’s an example image) and that's not even covering the other artwork of a more sexual nature and how it may be viewed as abuse of women.

Or how about the movies The Reader and Lolita... and failing that... how about Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (the hospital scene was junk and un-necessary in my opinion...but now potentially a crime?), or perhaps Hard Candy?  And these are just four off the top of my head.

While the artwork in question is certainly questionable in taste... I begin to wonder what is at risk and just how many people will be viewed as guilty of ownership of items (or perhaps simply judged on their comments alone) that previously would not have been of concern?

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