CANADA – Gordon Tshun Chin is the first man in Canadian history to be convicted of importing child pornography – in cartoon form.The slim, bespectacled 26-year-old Edmonton man recently pled guilty in provincial court and received a one-year conditional sentence for importing a Japanese magazine that contained sexually explicit cartoon images that are legal in the United States and in Japan. Judge David Tilley informed Chin that he would have preferred to have handed down a prison sentence, but that the law did not allow him to do so, as there were no actual children involved in the material that he deemed “filth which should not be available to the public.”

According to Crown prosecutor Steven Bilodeau, laws that became effective on November 1 include mandatory prison time for those found guilty of importing child pornography. The Chin case is the first that Bilodeau is aware of where anyone has been convicted of importing illustrated child porn and he believes that although Canadians may not know it’s also illegal, it’s not very common. Bilodeau believes that animated and illustrated child porn is dangerous because it has a “noxious” side likely to “inflame viewers” and that can “normalize” child sex due to its seemingly benign nature. “These images are very disgusting and violent,” Bilodeau said. “There are pictures of babies in diapers being raped.”

A mail package addressed to Chin and containing 15 anime magazines with child sexual images was discovered by customs agents in late January, who alerted city police. On February 10 the police set up a “controlled delivery” of the package to Chin’s residence and then arrested him. A search of his residence revealed another 63 similar publications, as well as hundreds of downloaded pages of anime kiddie porn found online.

Chin’s attorney, Darcy Depoe said that his client was not aware that his actions were illegal and pointed out that this was Chin’s first offence. Depoe indicated that the word that best described his client was “naïve.”

In addition to six-month house arrest, Chin will pay a $150 fine, perform 100 hours of community service, accept counseling, refrain from using a computer or accessing the Internet, provide a DNA sample for the national DNA data bank in Ottawa, have his name placed on a sex offender registry for five years, and will be on probation for 18 months after his sentence has been completed.