Technicalities
Jun. 7th, 2010 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perzephone
In WoW's trade chat, for some reason, there's been a lot of talk about child molestation. I've learned over the years of playing WoW that trade chat isn't actually for trade at all. It's the gaming equivalent of 4chan's /b/. It's full of trolls trolling other trolls. Unlike 4chan, though, I pay $15 a month for the endless entertainment that trade chat gives me. Chances are, the people busily typing away at what they would do to kids in their windowless vans are trolls and not actual molesters and rapists. They're just trying to get a reaction out of the people reading trade chat. Like any other breed of online troll, the best response is to ignore them completely, and WoW provides its users with an ignore list to do just that. My one complaint is that my WoW ignore list only has 50 slots on it and half of those are usually filled up with goldfarmers and the other half with perpetrators of the 'anal [insert ability or achievement name here]' game. If enough people report the person who states they enjoy luring children to their house, Blizzard will no doubt ban the troll - something I wish they would do with the anal offenders.
At any rate, Rob raised an interesting question regarding the trade chat trend. Are written accounts of child molestation, sexual abuse, etc. illegal & considered child pornography at all? I've read a lot of books and online accounts, and even written my own, about sexual activity being engaged in or being done to minors. Granted, I've never seen a printed published magazine centered around text accounts of sexual activity involving minors, but a good example would be all the V. C. Andrews' books. That woman had issues. Her books made good porn that I could get away with reading in school, but damn - serious issues going on there.
Most of the legal definitions of what constitutes child pornography seem to focus on visual, and occasionally audio, depictions of sexual acts involving minors. There are some cultural differences for tolerance levels - what is acceptable teen reading (manga & whatnot) in Japan could be considered child pornography in other countries (what's weird is that I found a fairly indepth article about this dated in 2004 that states depiction of adult genitals, pubic hair & intercourse is prohibited in Japan, but the depiction of children's genitalia is not strictly regulated - which is why Shin Chan gets away with running around nekkid all the time. Japan does have laws against child porn, though). If a producer alters a photo of an adult engaged in sexual activity to appear to have the body of a child or teen-ager, is it still child porn? Then there is intent - things like nekkid babies in diaper commercials aren't considered child porn, even though someone is probably whacking off to it every time it comes on their television.
Ah, this was what I was looking for: In the United States, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law in February 1996, makes it a felony to knowingly transmit "obscene or indecent material" over the Internet or on-line computer services if the material may be seen by children under 18.
What all this boils down to is that Rob is well within his rights as a concerned and upstanding member of the Azerothian community to report people spamming trade with talk about child molestation.
Of course, Rob isn't doing it because someone has to think of the children, but because Rob is an asshole.
At any rate, Rob raised an interesting question regarding the trade chat trend. Are written accounts of child molestation, sexual abuse, etc. illegal & considered child pornography at all? I've read a lot of books and online accounts, and even written my own, about sexual activity being engaged in or being done to minors. Granted, I've never seen a printed published magazine centered around text accounts of sexual activity involving minors, but a good example would be all the V. C. Andrews' books. That woman had issues. Her books made good porn that I could get away with reading in school, but damn - serious issues going on there.
Most of the legal definitions of what constitutes child pornography seem to focus on visual, and occasionally audio, depictions of sexual acts involving minors. There are some cultural differences for tolerance levels - what is acceptable teen reading (manga & whatnot) in Japan could be considered child pornography in other countries (what's weird is that I found a fairly indepth article about this dated in 2004 that states depiction of adult genitals, pubic hair & intercourse is prohibited in Japan, but the depiction of children's genitalia is not strictly regulated - which is why Shin Chan gets away with running around nekkid all the time. Japan does have laws against child porn, though). If a producer alters a photo of an adult engaged in sexual activity to appear to have the body of a child or teen-ager, is it still child porn? Then there is intent - things like nekkid babies in diaper commercials aren't considered child porn, even though someone is probably whacking off to it every time it comes on their television.
Ah, this was what I was looking for: In the United States, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law in February 1996, makes it a felony to knowingly transmit "obscene or indecent material" over the Internet or on-line computer services if the material may be seen by children under 18.
What all this boils down to is that Rob is well within his rights as a concerned and upstanding member of the Azerothian community to report people spamming trade with talk about child molestation.
Of course, Rob isn't doing it because someone has to think of the children, but because Rob is an asshole.
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Date: 2010-06-08 05:21 am (UTC)http://www.asstr.org/~tyger/main.html
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