Politics of an Obscene Character
29 May 2008The suitably Orwellian-sounding Ministry of Justice has announced that it is to criminalise the possession of “all images of child sexual abuse, including drawings and computer-generated images”.
When the Home Office originally outlined their plans to criminalise such cartoons, I urged people to send a reply to the consultation and many people did voice their concerns. In a display of total disregard to our views, the Ministry of Justice have issued a “Summary of responses and next steps“, which reveals legislators’ intentions in relation to this issue. A brief analysis of this response suggests that the primary aspect of the legislation will look something like this:
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1. It is an offence to make, distribute, show or possess any visual depiction of a child which is not a photograph or a pseudo-photograph, which shows —
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(a) An excessive focus on a child’s genitalia; or
(b) A person of any age performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with a child; or
(c) An act of masturbation by, of or involving a child; or
(d) Penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth of a child with a part of the person’s body or with anything else; or
(e) Bestiality involving a child;
and is of an obscene character.
Justice Minister Maria Eagle attempted to justify the proposed law by claiming that “paedophiles could be circumventing the law by using computer technology to manipulate real photographs or videos of abuse into drawings or cartoons.” This is blatantly untrue, as Section 69 of the recently enacted Criminal Justice and Immigration Act amended Section 7 of the Protection of Children Act, to the effect that a non-photographic image derived from an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph is treated for all purposes of the Act as an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph. In short, it’s already illegal to make, possess, distribute or show cartoons and drawings which have been manipulated from real photographs.
It is also illegal to distribute any “obscene publication” under the Obscene Publications Act, and despite the contrary claims of the Ministry of Justice, it is illegal to take, make, distribute, show or possess a pseudo-photograph, which means that all efforts to implement the proposed new law can have only one effect: the possession of material which is not derived from photographs of “abuse” and which is clearly non-photographic will be criminalised.
Shaun Kelly, speaking for NCH, stated that “this is a welcome announcement which makes a clear statement that drawings or computer-generated images of child abuse are as unacceptable as a photograph“, effectively contradicting his previous claim that indecent photographs of children are wrong because, “for [..] images to be made children were abused.”
It is evident that the Ministry of Justice and NCH are attempting to hide the true intentions of this proposed law. To understand the motivations behind this proposal, a little background is required. As I explained at GirlChat,
The criminalisation of “non-photographic visual depictions of child sexual abuse” was first proposed by “children’s charities” - who are forever desperate to encourage donations by exploiting people’s emotions - in 2006. In 2007, the campaign was backed by low-importance MPs who wished to elevate their profile, but who were most likely uninterested in the issue in question.
The campaign became irrelevant when, earlier this month, any image derived from an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child became illegal under Section 69 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act.
Unfortunately, the UK economy is heading for recession and the criminal justice system is under attack due to a lack of space in prisons (the latter is ironically due to silly, politically-motivated legislation). The Labour government recently suffered a horrendous defeat in the recent by-elections, due to their drastic inability to deal with these issues. They have no choice but to use distraction techniques to divert attention from their incompetency.
Paedophiles are being used as pawns for political and economic reasons, simply because we are currently the weakest minority who nobody will speak out for.
The pathetic irony of the proposed legislation is that someone who is convicted of possessing a cartoon derived from an image of a child masturbating will get the same sentence as someone who is convicted of making a photograph of an adult molesting a child, because the person in the former case would be charged under the recently amended Protection of Children Act and the new law, whereas the latter would only be charged under the Protection of Children Act. It is clear that the UK government is not “only” using paedophiles as pawns; it is using children as pawns too.
7 Responses to “Politics of an Obscene Character”
May 30th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I think that this is basically just thought crime being implemented here. it will first start out with it being used against paedophiles, but will materialise to be used against political enemies for publishing statements or cartoons which are “defamatory” in nature to the current regime. It will be a form of political persecution.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Oh, this is too funny! I can already see where this is going to go. Soon, very soon, it’ll be illegal to possess any illustration of any crime. I mean, why stop with pedophiles? Why not start outlawing illustrations that might “make someone do drugs or kill someone.” HAHAHA - 1984 is here! Orwell, you were such a fucking genius - you fucking nailed it!
Now why am I laughing - well, this is what they get. Their hatred and fear of pedophiles has lead them here. It’s because of their bigotry towards us that all of this is happening! As the saying goes - this is what you get!
June 7th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
You are the obscene bluse ribbon, you filthy fucking pedophile!
June 8th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Let’s see…jail for downloading child porn cartoons, jail for downloading
child porn photographs…tough choice really.
Let’s roll the dice!
Upsss…Actually I just realised they both illegal, so now I am shaking in fear,
I will go back to my McJob and wait until I am 70yo to die in my council flat.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
“You are the obscene bluse ribbon, you filthy fucking pedophile!”
I guess you just cannot think of an intelligent response, it is just beyond you llort.
How pathetic.
p.s. the word blue does not have the letter s in it.
July 6th, 2009 at 1:46 am
I dont think that they understand that drawings are not real people, whether they’re copied images or not.
No one is getting raped, no one is getting hurt. I really dont see how people can be arrested for this?
Just goes to show how the justice system fails. There are tons of people who are into the “shota” anime category.
But hey, why not jail everyone for doing something that doesn’t hurt anyone amirite?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Your all sick cunts i hope you die, if i met any of you i would [deleted] u pedo’s u all deserve to die x)