LONDON — In an effort to close a perceived “loophole” in Britain’s Obscene Publication’s Act, a new proposal has been introduced that would ban all images of child sexual abuse, including those that are drawn or computer-generated.Under the plan introduced last week by Justice Minister Maria Eagle, anyone who possessed such images could be sentenced to as many as three years in prison.
Under current law, sale, and distribution of child abuse imagery is illegal, but mere possession of images whose creation did not involve actual children is not against the law.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the government has noticed an increasing number of computer-manipulated child-abuse images on the internet. Child welfare organizations and government ministers are concerned pedophiles may be circumventing the law by using technology to transform images of actual child sexual abuse into drawings and cartoons.
“If we do not address the issues these images raise now it is likely their availability will continue to grow,” a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman told the BBC. “They are often advertised as a legitimate depiction of child sexual abuse.”
Jim Gamble, chief of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, told the BBC, “We are positive that there is a need to clarify this position in law and believe that people actively seeking out, creating or sharing images of young children being abused represent a potentially significant risk. We are therefore committed to further engage with the Ministry Of Justice to ensure the most effective measures possible are implemented.”
According to Eagle, the planned update to the law is “not about criminalizing art or pornographic cartoons more generally, but about targeting obscene, and often very realistic, images of child sexual abuse which have no place in our society.”
