It's happened. While one might have expected it to happen in Alaska, it seems Canada has let off a new round in the war against virtual lolicon, with two brothers sentenced to three months in jail for possessing child pornography, specifically 'manga images.'

Twin brothers David Scott Hammond and James Corey Hammond of New Glasgow in Nova Scotia had been downloading large amounts of lolicon material, approximately 90% of which were manga and cartoon-style illustrations. Some real-life material was also found through computer forensics.

In addition the jail time (to be served on weekends), the twins would be registered as sex offenders, provide DNA samples, and be banned from contact with children. Anime Vice points out that compared with the case of Christopher Handley of Iowa, who possessed only anime/manga material, the sentence is actually quite light. Handley faces up to fifteen years in prison once a sentence is passed.

Crown Attorney Craig Botterill said that "every one of these images involves the victimization of children," and that "this victimization wouldn't happen in the first place if there weren't people there to look at this material."

Judge Theodore Tax added "This is a crime that victimizes young people around the world, [creating] a market which then re-victimizes the most vulnerable in society."

Every time a case of this sort comes up - be it for virtual violence or virtual porn -  one can't help but ask "what victim?" Can fictional people be victimized, and more importantly, should people be punished for victimizing nonexistent entities?

It's not so much that I'm defending child pornography, virtual or otherwise, as opposing the presumption that thinking eventually leads to doing, which is the key to every one of these types of accusations. 

[Via Icarus Publishing]