The legality of hentai? UK & USA laws.

Itadakimasuuuu said:
This whole post is hilarious. GG!!!

Battlechili said:
In the UK loli/shota is illegal even in art.
In the US, its a gray area and typically people don't get into trouble anyways.

YakuKikyo said:
The Anime is Japanese, right ? Why would you report it using UK or US laws ? UK and USA can decide to not import that product, but that's it.

Tokis86 said:
SodiumChloride/Shadowtheking/HaXXspetten/QuattroVaginas: Thanks for the replies! So you are basically saying that in all likelihood, this sort of stuff isn't illegal (because its basically a cartoon) in the United Kingdom (or at least the USA)? That I should just "live and let live" and ignore what I've seen?

Suiceyed: But I don't have a history of anything like that '_' !

I'm surprised this stuff is so, so...Commonplace? That such messed-up hentai is so easy to chance upon?

Z-Dante: Maybe the girl was just made to look younger than she was then? I suppose it is hard to gauge the supposed age of an anime characters sometimes when so many of them are made to look so young. It didn't explicitly say her age (not at least as far as I am aware) but she certainly was made to look like a kid. I don't know what the name of the hentai was (TBH I don't really want to go back looking for it though to find out etc),

PS: Also whats the deal with this "Chinese cartoon porn"? I feel like people are referring to a particular thing here (but I have no idea about)?
This was plain old Japanese Hentai.

Tokis86 said:


Yeah its a Japanese hentai but I obviously saw it online (and not everything online is legal of course). If anything the internet is largely un-moderated and so you have to navigate it using your own sense of legal knowledge and moral compass.
Or else!
You do hear stories of people getting done for viewing illegal pornography (and the last thing I want to have done by clicking on this hentai is accidentally incriminate myself). After all if you witness something illegal you should report it, right?

I had no idea what this hentai was about before I clicked on it and I don't know if I should report it (and if I should, how does one even go about that? Its hardly like you gonna phone 999 about such a thing and so there should be something on the internet you can report stuff like this to right?).

Battlechili said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_cartoon_pornography_depicting_minors#United_Kingdom

I wouldn't worry too much about it, but basically, don't go out of your way to view/have such content there, as its risky. In the US though, it wouldn't really be an issue.

beast_regards said:


In case you don't really know and don't pull my leg here, ignorant people refer to anime (and hentai) as "Chinese cartoon" as they can't tell the difference.

As for the Hentai, it definitely comes with lot of messed up things usually, one should be quite expected. As for the laws that cover it, they are pretty much schizophrenic as Japanese actually hate pedophilia and this isn't any more acceptable than in the rest of the civilized world.

As for the local laws - well, I don't know. But US is pretty much filled with religious fanatics that forbid virtually everything yet they produce more porn than rest of the world combined ...

Majority of the anime you ever saw hasn't been intended to be distributed outside Japan and you are probably watching a illegal copy, which obviously includes hentai.

As for actually watching the stuff - well, if you are arrested for any other crime I bet they will use it against you as well as virtually anything you ever got, but apart author's right it isn't a problem.

YakuKikyo said:


People who were arrested in their countries, under the laws of their country (most of the times for stuff considered "pedophilia", not "regular" porn). And if you're scared because you clicked once on something like that, do not worry. You'd have to go on those types of places intensively for anything to occur, if in your country such things are even fought in the first place.

It is illegal in some countries, it isn't in others. The website ? You can't exactly sue it in the current state, for what I know. Even if you did report it to...I don't know...the plice ? Chances are high the people in charge will just shrug, note it down to make you feel better but never do anything against it.

All in all, you seem to want to give yourself good conscious by reporting it, and search approval here ? Might just be me overinterpreting it, but you seem so insistent about it.

Tokis86 said:


Its more a case of;
1. I clicked on something only for it to turn out to be something I totally didn't want to see.
2. Its legally and morally dubious.
3. If I have incriminated myself by clicking on it (or just viewing anything on the site as a whole), I'd rather "un-criminate" myself if that's possible by doing the right thing (reporting the site or particular hentai etc) as the last thing I'd ever want is to get into trouble for being unwittingly involved in something like that.
4. I'm someone who tends to over-think matters and worry a lot and so part of the concern you're seeing here is probably just some of my personality coming through. I did this thread as I don't know anything much on matters like this (and felt like I needed some advice & guidance/reassurance etc). I don't know if I'm worried about nothing or whether it would be wiser to do something about the matter at hand (like report it somehow).

FunkyNano said:
Illegal to produce or illegal to watch/read/download? Because surely someone couldn't be penalised just for looking at loli hentai, even if it is considered paedophilia, it's not like you can convict someone just for being a paedophile, especially when it is (and probably always will be) such a grey area.

JustALEX said:
Overly sensitive people WILL be offended by Cartoon porn.

And I can assure you that here in MAL we have plenty of people who are offended by cartoon porn and have argued to death that not only should it be banned, but the individuals who like it should be incriminated.

Trust me when I tell you....people are very easily offended.

Deago said:
Do people get arrested for having 3d lolita porn on their PC?

JustALEX said:
Once again....we're discussing whether or not fictional drawings should be legal or not and the merits of each side.

AltoRoark99 said:

I don't recall anyone on MAL saying it should be banned or that lolicons should be incriminated.

AltoRoark99 said:

I don't recall anyone on MAL saying it should be banned or that lolicons should be incriminated.

MihoWittmann said:
Yes, hentai depicting children or characters who look like children is effectively illegal for now in the UK, US, and Canada. That's been the result whenever people have been brought to court for possessing it recently, even though that probably goes against these countries' constitutions (in the UK, the European Charter) and some precedent in the US & UK.

I don't think I'd ever be arrested for something like this as I've never downloaded any hentai, anime or dubious stuff like that etc. I've watched anime online for a while now on sites like http://gogoanime.io/ and http://animeshow.tv/ but for such sites to proliferate they can't be that illegal can they? There is so much anime never released on Western shores (and when it does get released its dubbed and takes a really long time to arrive over here) and so without such sites it would be impossible to see a lot of anime.

Sw_Star24 said:
the real question is , why does Hentai even exists?

It just make some outcasts look even more like losers and make others be even more perverted.

such an obscure genre that's not even popular should not even be a thing , but you know, people sexualising anything came in and damn.

Lyuze said:
Lolicon/shotacon hentai causes no direct harm to any individuals so I don't believe it should be illegal. The act of pleasuring oneself to such content is still however morally reprehensible; one is still masturbating to their idealised vision of a child.

Scooty-Bby said:
Im in the UK too. Theres nothing illegal about it as no actually kid is being harmed and its impossible for a prosecutor to actually prove the age of the character(because shes not real). For all you know she could have just been a petite adult? So it cant be proved and therefore almost impossible to convict someone for it.

(6)Where an image shows a person the image is to be treated as an image of a child if—

(a)the impression conveyed by the image is that the person shown is a child, or

(b)the predominant impression conveyed is that the person shown is a child despite the fact that some of the physical characteristics shown are not those of a child.

References to an image of a child include references to an image of an imaginary child.

Lyuze said:
Lolicon/shotacon hentai causes no direct harm to any individuals so I don't believe it should be illegal. The act of pleasuring oneself to such content is still however morally reprehensible; one is still masturbating to their idealised vision of a child.

Will_Wright said:


That's not how it works. They don't try the determine the age of a drawing, they try to determine if the drawing gives the impression that it is a child. As of 2010, loli hentai is illegal in the UK because:



and because of:



Which basically states that if there's no way no determine the exact age, then it will be based on judgment. And good luck passing your defense of "she's just petite" because that ain't going to work.

Scooty-Bby said:


Indeed your correct, because I never said it was legal. It is indeed illegal(and wrong) to do.However, its innocent until proven guilty. If a prosecutor cant prove its a child, then they cant convict you with a crime. In no court of law can they 'make their own judgement' on something which is fiction, because they would effectively be making things up.