for child abuse.

You should concentrate on a single point at a time, like I'm going to.

1. America should butt out of interfering in everyone else's affairs. Japan should tell it to piss off.
2. 'Child erotica' is smut with kids and anyone who indulges should be shot in the face. Fuck the freedom of the internet or free speech or any of that liberal shite - they're perverts.

There you go. Just my opinions.

What is child sex, anyway? The law on sex, and in particular ages of consent, varies so much from place to place. What is "child sex" in one place may be legal in another. In Japan the age of consent is 13, whereas in most of the USA Federal law defines anyone under 18 as a "minor".

Oh, and Jubal seems to have a pretty knee-jerk attitude to the topic, for someone whose pseudonym is lifted from a novel by Robert Heinlein, of all people:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/63270/Robert-Heinlein-and-sex

Japanese porn cartoons are sick - and seem to be a sly way of priming the supply of the raw material by making children sexually aware, before they ought to be.

The Japanese child porn cartoons are paedophilia - and if anyone here is somehow confused by the legal status, let me tell you very clearly that it is a CRIME and a very serious one indeed to possess such material.

Don't be under any illusions about child porn not being child porn just because it is a drawing or cartoon or painting or even a story.

All of these instances are child porn.

I believe that the use of cartoons is just a way to bypass the original laws, buts its changed since and digital images, real or not, are enough to get you banged up in nick.

Try explaining to the jeering (yet morally concerned) cons and lags about what is and is not child porn.

If someone *purchases* images involving real children being abused, then they should be punished. It is important however, to consider this issue in more detail.

* If someone downloads images which they *haven't purchased*, they haven't encouraged abuse, because the producer will not want them to view their "material" for free. They'll have done the equivalent of downloading free music from P2P networks, in terms of how they do or don't encourage production.

* "Child erotica" often refers to images which don't involve real children, especially in Japan. Arresting someone for viewing a cartoon is absurd, but it is current legal protocol in the USA, and there are plans to introduce such legislation in the UK.

* Although many child molesters are not technically paedophiles (primarily/exclusively attracted to children), some are paedophiles. If viewing images prevents someone from committing an act of sexual abuse against a child, those images should not be illegal to possess.

He's such a joker, this is a man who causes a great deal of child suffering, and does nothing about it, cant take him seriously when he starts pointing fingers at others.....I wonder how many of the child victims of his wars and sanctions, are having to prostitute themselves to buy food. I think it has more to do with his desire to exert control over other countries, than the issue itself.