Cartoons of Child Sex Abuse
I notice the IWF reporting page now refers to www.eVictims.org for things that the IWF don't deal with.
On the e-Victims.org website (which seems to gain a hyphen all of a sudden), there's a "Q&As" section which includes this:-
"I saw a cartoon of child sex abuse - is this illegal?
"If you see any images of a child sex abuse that are computer generated, or are drawings or animation, these are legally no different from photographs. You should report it to the Internet Watch Foundation."
http://www.e-victims.org/offensive-websites/upsetting-websites/i-saw-a-cartoon-of-child-sex-abuse-is-this-illegal.html
What's the basis for that? What's the cartoon stuff in the Coroners and Justice Bill for, then? It hasn't been passed, yet, and is supposed to deal with such material on the basis that possession isn't illegal, yet.
Perhaps they're confused?
If the images are pseudo-photographs, meaning they're not actually photographs, but look like they are photographs, then possession would be illegal. I believe that's under the Protection of Children Act 1978 as amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
If the images are derived from photographs or pseudo-photographs, such as tracings or computer-processed images, then they still count as photographs or pseudo-photographs under the Protection of Children Act 1978 as amended by Sections 69 and 70 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (just after the "extreme" porn Sections).
A question that's occurred to me: taken together, do those amendments mean that a drawing that looks like it could be derived from an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph therefore count as one, even when it's not?
Imagine a photograph of a real child being raped. It's real abuse, and the photograph is a real photograph as we'd usually understand it. Such an indecent photograph is already illegal to possess. Imagine a tracing of such a photograph. Such a tracing still counts as an indecent photograph, due to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.
Now imagine a similar drawing, but one that wasn't derived from any other image. Since it looks as realistic as the illegal tracing, and since the illegal tracing now counts as an indecent photograph, would this purely original drawing count as a pseudo-photograph? This would be due to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
Do these two amendments combine in that kind of way? In which case, it would seem the cartoon stuff in the current Coroners and Justice Bill is redundant, and needlessly complicates the law. Or do they not combine in that way? In which case, e-Victims.org has got it wrong.
Paris, because I'm confused, too.