"Cartoon Law" comes into effect, effectively bans minor furry pornography in the UK
As the days count down until the general election on May 6th, Parliament is now starting to push through the final pieces of legislation for the current government. While many people have been focusing on the Digital Economy Bill, Parliament yesterday quietly passed legislation that may effect furries more than any other.
The Cartoon Law has made it illegal to create or possess imagery of minors (characters under-18 years of age), without discretion to species or the manner in which that imagery has been created. In furry terms, artwork of characters under-18 - be them engaging in a sexual act or having exposed genitalia - are henceforth illegal. This also includes imagery of sexual acts occurring in the presence of a minor.
It doesn't just affect furries however, lolicon (a form of hentai depicting children) is also made illegal under the new law.
Prior to the passing of the Cartoon Law, it was only photography of minors in sexual acts that was deemed illegal.
Although the UK does not operate a national censor (akin to the "Great Firewall of China"), there is the Internet Watch Foundation which does operate a censor that is used by 95% of British ISPs. The IWF became notorious in late-2008 for blocking a Wikipedia article for containing an image of a naked minor. Although said ban was uplifted four days afterwards after large press attention.
In 2006, popular furry website Fur Affinity famously allowed pornography relating to "babyfurs" to remain on the site, which resulted in a backlash amongst much of the community. It is unknown as of yet whether FA is planning to change this policy now that it is illegal in a market where many of it's users are based.
Edit (April 7th, 2010; 8:29pm UTC): A statement posted by the Fur Affinity Twitter account states that no changes to policy will be made in accordance with this new law. Current policy changes under revision bans underage artwork containing "proto-human" characters, which the site defines as "elves, dwarves or neko-style characters".
Edit (April 7th, 2010; 10:32pm UTC): Dragoneer has posted the following statement on the Fur Affinity forums:
We're aware of the issues and investigating them. I don't see any reason for panic at this time.
Until such a time, he recommends that UK furries continue to use Fur Affinity, however activate the mature content filters until such a time that they deem safe.
Edit (April 8th, 2010; 12:21pm UTC): I have contacted the Ministry of Justice requesting clarification of the wording in the law, following some contention about the issue.
About the author
Alexander Grey — read stories — contact (login required)a Fruit bat
Founder, editor-in-chief and tea cosy of the (now defunct) Furtean Times.
Comments
I thought the act only banned images depicitng sex between a minor and an animal. Where does it says that minors of any species are banned?
...hang on, I think I've spotted it. Section 65.7 and 65.8 - images of imaginary people or children. But wait, people and children are still imaginary. It does not say if it is illegal to ban depictions of young imaginary animals, does it?
All you have to do if anyone ever questioned you about it is tell them that the image was a chibi 18 year old imaginary furry fantasy character.
They can't fuckin prove how old a drawing is. :/
actually, considering that law dictates that the burden of proof of age is on the creator, all cartoon porn can technically be considered underage by the court, no proof required, and it's impossible to prove that it's NOT underage if the characters don't actually exist. Sucks, doesn't it?
This is going to end up utterly destroying the fandom, I'm linking everyone I know in the fandom to this.
All FA has to do is ban cub porn once in for all, and we'll move on.
Cub furs will have to find another site to look at porn I guess, but at least it's not forcing it upon the UK.
haha, FA banning cub? Good one guys, softpaws gives money to FA like dragoneer is ever going to ban it.
its awful. losing all the users in the uk.
and that there doesnt even seem to jump about it.
i feel pretty afwul , cause this should have been the kick up the ass to make it clear the site of cub porn :c
This law doesnt affect FA at all, not the UK users.
As a legal studies enthusiest, the law applies to drawings of "real or imaginery" people or children.....a fur is not a person nor a child, it can be argued its an imaginery animal first and foremost.
Secondly FA is a site not hosted in the UK, they wont chnage policy just because of one country and so far they dont even need to, just go about your bussiness like everything was normal.
How effective can this law be? How can you legally determine the age of a fictional character based solely on appearance? The sitcom "Mork and Mindy" where Mork's people look like seniors when they are born and age looking like babies. What about Benjamin Button where he is depicted as a teenager having sex with his senior girlfriend. The Roger Rabbit baby, ya know the one who fondles women and smokes a cigar, how old is that character? What about the child like looking alien in Star Trek. How about in Atlantis where you can live thousands of years before you become an adult. Fictional characters are just that "fiction" It would have to be a blatant depiction of a human minor involved in a sexual situation and a character that his or her age is known by other spoken or written fiction.
I could say that anyone who owns my art about my characters can be guilty of owning art of minors in sexual situation since the genesis of my characters age at the same rate as their animal counterparts and none have yet aged over 9 let alone 18.
My statement of this gives evidence to your guilt. Take em' away!
So if you got Renamon in a sexual situations with Riku who is a minor based on the show maybe... unless Riku suffers from dwarfism in your drawing.
Can you see how asinine this argument can get?
Even as I am writing this I get ill from the very idea of prohibiting art.
^It doesn't matter about that, it's up to the jury don't you think the jury would vote guilty.
i think if this were the case, then any country (including the United States) which bans child pornography also bans cub yiff. while there are several countries and some US states which blatantly ban beastiality of any kind, be it real or imaginary, in places where "yiffing" is allowed, but child pornography isn't, cub should be safe.
www.redwall.tv - The Redwall Animated Series
balto.redwall.tv - "Balto" Animated Movie
mononoke.redwall.tv - "Princess Mononoke"
How can you ban something that someone drew anyway. It's art. You are taking a few rights away. And to be 100% honest. YOU CAN'T BAN ART. HOW DOES THAT WORK. REALLY. If someone drew child pornography and put it in your desk at work. OHFUCK. Your gunna get in trouble cause someone drew something related to children. This law does not make sense. I can understand actual child porn. But not ART. A few minutes with a pencil means jail time now? That makes sense. Art is a felony now, might as well ban all types of cartoonist pornographic art then. This law doesn't work.
Russia is over reacting big time. God who made life does not see time,and as result does not see age. Russia has to see we are on a planet of sex,and nudity. God who made life does not care about age therefor why do we? I say lift the ban. I also say to the furries to make the ordinary carton character with all the parts to doing other activities other than having sex to make them well rounded. The penis is not always out on a dog, and therefore should not always out in an animated dog too. They can do brave thing, merciful things, solve mysteries. Win their enemy over with kindness, and forgiving love or have whatever adventures that any of your furry animation does, and not have a perpetual orgy. Find the middle road.
The sexual addiction humans are only there to give guilt. God who made sex does not give guilt. Therefore the sexual addiction humans should be ignored.
People need to ban themselvces from the planet. They are porn. People are idiots.
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