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NEWS: UK Virtual Child Porn Ban Takes Effect on Tuesday

It is not our intention to criminalise possession of material which it would be lawful to publish in the UK (material which would not fall foul of the Obscene Publications Act). To that end we envisage the offence having a third element to it, namely that the material caught is of an obscene character. It should be noted that this third element to the offence was not proposed in the consultation paper, but has been included to ensure that the offence catches the intended material.

In the case of non-photographic depictions of the sexual abuse of children, the offence will outline a number of specifi c acts in order to provide clarity and precision. To some extent, this threshold will be based on the scale of seriousness in the Court of Appeal Sentencing Guidelines (R v Oliver and others (2003) 2 Cr.App.R(S) 15) and the revised guidance, published by the Sentencing Guidelines Council.6 The offence should criminalise nonphotographic visual images depicting the following:
• An image which focuses excessively on a child’s genitalia
• A person of any age performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with a child
• An act of masturbation by, of or involving a child
• Penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth of a child with a part of the person’s body or
with anything else
• Bestiality involving a child

Before people completely freak out, it would be a good idea to go through this PDF.

Consultation on the Possession of Non-Photographic Visual Depictions of Child Sexual Abuse (pg.11) wrote:

It is not our intention to criminalise possession of material which it would be lawful to publish in the UK (material which would not fall foul of the Obscene Publications Act). To that end we envisage the offence having a third element to it, namely that the material caught is of an obscene character. It should be noted that this third element to the offence was not proposed in the consultation paper, but has been included to ensure that the offence catches the intended material.

So there's no need to stop reading Negima! et al just yet! Where US imports of anime and such stand, I'm not too certain. As they won't have been BBFC rated, this could be a bit of a grey area?

The thing I noticed from the excerpt is that the term "obscene" has appeared once again. The ambiguity of what is obscene is what gets people worried.

The second threshold would be an objective test for the jury in respect of the content of the image. It was suggested in the consultation paper that the threshold for fantasy images should be different from that of ‘indecent’ which is used for images involving real children.

It's up to a jury, it seems.

• An act of masturbation by, of or involving a child

Nope. This stuff does not apply to stuff that can be legally sold in the UK. So if it's cool with the BBFC, it's cool with them.

Please don't freak!

Quote:

• An act of masturbation by, of or involving a child

Goodbye, End of Evangelion.

Nope. This stuff does not apply to stuff that can be legally sold in the UK. So if it's cool with the BBFC, it's cool with them.

Ojamajo LimePie wrote:

Quote: • An act of masturbation by, of or involving a child Goodbye, End of Evangelion.

So basically, yeah, anyone in the UK owning a copy of End of Evangelion could wind up in prison. What sort of exceptions, applying to anime or the grandfather rule where formerly authorized retail DVDs and books were purchased before the ban, could allow people to avoid this enforcement?

If the BBFC approve of a show, and it can be bought, then there is no problem.

In addition to non-photographic depictions of child sexual abuse, Campaign to End Rape requested that similar depictions of sexual violence against adults be included in legislation; this sentiment was echoed by Nottinghamshire Multi Agency Public Protection Team. The impact of the proposals on other genres of material was an issue frequently discussed, with many individuals predicting that the proposals could cause an inconsistency in respect of other material that could be deemed inappropriate and that this was a well-founded reason to withhold from taking action in this area.