Now every day can be Smutday!

It is time for a serious entry here on smutday.
I have held back writing about this until after the 15th of April, lest it seem I am adding to your personal woes.

This would be a wicked April Fool's Day prank; but sadly, it is no joke.
[All links herein are run through a dereferrer to hide where you read this.]

U.N.I.C.E.F. wants to prohibit and criminalize
drawings & illustrations
of "underage" persons in sexual situations.

It wants the penalty for those found to be in possession of, creating, or distributing such content to be years in prison, and mandated registration for your area's "Sex Offender" list.

Look at that sentence again. Especially the portion I have bolded. Drawings & illustrations are being targeted for what they depict. This is aimed at lolicon manga, anime, & video games.
But it would also include content by such artists as varied as Harry Bush, Carol Lay, Stuart Helm, & Mike Diana.
This is such an abhorrent reaction to the contemporary hysteria concerning child molestation that it bothers me to have to make these points against it under my cloak of semi-anonymity. {But I must. Another "do-gooder" group had me "permanently suspended" over on Live Journal for appearing to be "pedophiliac". Do you think one of them would try to have me arrested for possessing <=== This icon?}
Has anybody associated with UNICEF actually cogitated this through? I think not. Unfortunately, I submit that somebody in the higher offices of UNICEF succumbed to the pressure to appear to do something about "protecting" children.

There are at least two basic foundations I can propose as to why this movement by UNICEF cannot succeed.
The only vaguely supportable explanation for why drawings & illustrations of "underage" persons in sexual situations should be outlawed is "They could be utilized to attempt to convince an underaged person to commit a lewd act."
How big is the hole in this logic? Could this content be misused in such a manner?
Yes.
But if you then believe that this could be so misused, have you considered what else could be utilized in the same manner?

• Bubble Gum
• Ice Cream
• Candy
• Soda
• Chocolate

The second foundation is so much more discerned. It is even part of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

The substratum for all the "protect the children" laws is that nobody wants an actual "underaged" person to be emotionally and / or physically abused.
Who is the ‘victim’ being abused in a drawing or illustration of "underage" persons in sexual situations?
There is no victim.
A drawing or illustration does not depict an actual human being.
(If I was to make some drawings of something looking like Hello Kitty® with a lit stick of dynamite between its ears, and in succeeding panels, had the dynamite detonate: Other than the flack I would probably receive from Sanrio® and / or P.E.T.A.; would I have violated any laws?
No.
Not until another "thought crime" statute was promulgated which would criminalize the depiction of any acts of violence towards fictional characters. Then, you would wind up on an offender list for having a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon.)

The above is my best retort.
But I would be derelict if I did not also note that this is another small step which has much support from anti-erotica zealots.
The slippery slope on which this is perched is: Once drawings & illustrations of "underage" persons in sexual situations are outlawed, the cry will become "All depictions of sexual activity, regardless of the claimed ages for the persons in the drawings & illustrations, are now being used to attempt to convince an "underaged" person to commit a lewd act. So those shall also have to be prohibited and criminalized."

I know it seems astounding. But, yes, if this campaign by UNICEF is codified into law (The U.S.A. has the language on the books which would enforce this code. See what the Lu.scio.us hentai blog has to say about it.), any of a number of images, including lolicon, on your computer could result in you doing hard time, and landing you on the "Sex Offender" list.

You must act.
You must contact your area's governmental representatives (in the U.S.A., this means your Congress critter and your two U.S. Senators). Fortuitously, 2008 is a national election year. Tell them that you are not a child molester, you do not appreciate being treated like one, and you will not stand for being placed on the "Sex Offender" list for possessing lolicon, or any other drawings & illustrations of "underage" persons in sexual situations.

Lastly, contact UNICEF by as many means as you wish: Regular mail, facsimilies, E-Mail. Go picket its offices if you wish. The message which it might finally understand which you should make is:

You will not donate even as much as one penny to UNICEF until it rescinds this campaign.

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