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Did Kotaku just post an article with (animated) child porn? (NSFW) [Up: Kotaku apologizes]
- Thread starter Olaf
- Start date
Pornographic images of children qualifies as child porn. Doesn't matter how many asterisks you put in front of it.
That's the thing about drawings - they're not actually people, and thus have no age. No need for asterisks at all. What, you're really going to tell me a drawing of an underage character having sex is just as bad as a picture of an actual underage person having sex? Really?
Not in the US it's not.
Drawn child porn normalizes sexual attraction to minors and is used by predators to groom them. Not rocket science.
So does normal porn, but I'll ask again: you're going to tell me that a drawing of underage sex is just as bad as an actual picture of underage sex?
Yet here we are, and they didn't break the law. If it's blocked in your country, well, that's something that relates to your country. But so that's the issue? They showed some - yes, distasteful - stuff which broke the laws in other countries?
Even Randy Pitchford is like, damn - even my USB wasn't this bad.
Kotaku are ironically employing the "pretend nothing happened" technique that they have criticized people and companies for doing in the past.
It could be but I think it is much simpler than that. I think she just searched for things/games that she liked without putting much thought in the little details, like how old the characters were in those scenes. A big oversight if that is the case considering how she goes on in the article about attention to details and accurate reference to source materials.
Surely they have to get articles approved before posting them? Someone important thought this was a good idea
To be honest, silence is only going to make it worse.
If people get annoyed enough they'll start contacting Kotaku's advertisers and sponsors. I don't think they would like their product being advertised on a website hosting and promoting child pornography of any kind.
If I say it's not as bad, does that suddenly make it okay? Because I don't know what you're trying to prove here. It isn't just "distasteful." It encourages pedophilia and should not be consumed by any well-minded adult.
User Banned (1 Month): Dismissing Concerns and Inflammatory False Equivalence on the Sexualized Depiction of Minors Over Multiple Posts
It doesn't make it ok, no - in the sense that I find it kinda gross, like how I find those "violence porn" things kinda gross - but the reaction in this thread acts as though they're the same, when really it's more like "ewwwwww" and then you go on with your day and not worry about other people's weirdo sex proclivities as it relates to ageless drawings. I wasn't trying to "prove" anything, I just was trying to get a better picture of the fury that isn't just people being exposed to Harry Potter porn, like if it was a particular journalism based angle or something.
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They're engaging in whataboutisms and handwaving the effects of drawn child pornography. Just report them and move on, as discussion with them is not going to have any benefit.
"Section 1466A of Title 18, United State Code, makes it illegal for any person to knowingly produce, distribute, receive, or possess with intent to transfer or distribute visual representations, such as drawings, cartoons, or paintings that appear to depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and are deemed obscene."
How come big hentai sites and known artists are completely unaffected by this law?
Because the "and deemed obscene" part is the important part there.
"Editor's Note - 5:25pm: This story, part of our regular coverage of the intersection of sex and games, originally included screenshots from several porn parodies with a note that they were Not Safe For Work. We've since removed those images. While the intent of this article was to provide a snapshot of the kind of gaming and geek porn that's out there now, it's clear in retrospect that, in terms of the images and the analysis you expect from us, we made a mistake. Readers are understandably uncomfortable about these kinds of depictions of characters who are often depicted as or thought of as teenagers. I am, too and apologize. We can do better, and we will. - Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief "
thanks, I didn't want to click the article after reading through the thread
Did no one question this during the whole process? What a baffling fuckup by them which is a shame because they usually do good work.
I've been browsing Kotaku at work almost daily for the past few years because it often has the best compilation of recent gaming news out of all the major sites. Never, ever again. Onto my permanent personal blacklist they go (which is a real shame, because Jason and Tim both do exceptional work).
Pretty lame response from kotaku. "Oops, our bad on posting that animated child porn. Oops".
If this had been in a game as part of a terrible joke and then removed in a later patch, Kotaku would be outraged and have numerous articles criticizing the game and response. And rightfully so. But since it's them doing it, they act like it's not a big deal.
If this had been in a game as part of a terrible joke and then removed in a later patch, Kotaku would be outraged and have numerous articles criticizing the game and response. And rightfully so. But since it's them doing it, they act like it's not a big deal.
I do not know for sure but I would assume that many websites use servers outside the US and the sort of evidence required to gather per case is larger and more long term than you'd probably think.
On a person by person basis though, if someone gets arrested by the policd for whatever reason, they get a warrant to search his phone and they stumble across your average hentai pics on them, that person is turbo-fucked.
If that's true then the author is the most absent minded clueless journalist / writer to ever exist. This is "have a seat" levels of bad. It wasn't just one picture. It was multiple pictures depicting underage characters in gross forms of sexual acts including gang rape.
If it's properties and characters the author is a fan of, then that leads to more reason to doubt she wasn't aware that some of them were as young as 10 years old in the fiction they were created for (game, cartoon, etc.)
I love when certain people/sites are given all the benefit of the doubt in the world, with people on this site tripping over themselves to justify. Meanwhile if the person/site is already disliked, the most minor infraction is seen as grounds for all sorts of aggression
This is not true at all. A lot of these websites operate out of the US, and only a couple people have ever actually been prosecuted for this (and none of them went to trial). The reason you don't see your average hentai site being taken down is that they would have to prove that the content is obscene, which means "without any literary, scientific, cultural or artistic merit". That's such broad criteria that it's not really a sure thing you'd be able to deem a lot of this content obscene. Given the history of obscenity prosecutions in the US, modern prosecutors don't seem to think these cases are really winnable or worth the resources to pursue.
Law enforcement does not care about it, they have their resources spread thin enough pursuing actual cases of exploitation, they have virtually no interest in fictional material. That's why this kind of content is so ubiquitous on the internet.
Which is why my first suggestion was that she is just densisitized to rule 34 content. Like if you've read a lot of smutty Harry Potter fanfiction in your youth (which I would guess she probably has) it may not immediately occur to you that looking up some SFM porn of Harry Potter is a bad idea.
This shouldn't be acceptable and wouldn't be if this site didn't have protected status around here.
To be fair I don't even know what the fuck Rule 34 is or whatever weird ass shit people are into so yeah.
RE: the editor's note
I know it's the job of an editor to approve of articles and stuff but maybe for these blogs it's different. If he did approve this article though then both the author and editor have to go. This is right up there with the THQ Nordic AMA, probably worse since they actually hosted the content. This feels like one of those things where every outside observer, every reader the site has, could instantly tell you this was a bad idea yet it still happens.
I know it's the job of an editor to approve of articles and stuff but maybe for these blogs it's different. If he did approve this article though then both the author and editor have to go. This is right up there with the THQ Nordic AMA, probably worse since they actually hosted the content. This feels like one of those things where every outside observer, every reader the site has, could instantly tell you this was a bad idea yet it still happens.
The thread is massive, I've only been able to skim... there were people defending this? I'm guessing the "well it's not illegal in my country" deal?
Rule 34 comes from internet culture, it stands for what is ostensibly Rule #34 of the internet: if it exists, there is porn of it. It basically is a catchall term for fictional porn that comes from various fandoms. That could be fanfiction erotica, erotic fan art or comics, or animated porn made using source filmmaker. Pretty much every fandom produces erotic content of some kind, and some (like Sonic the Hedgehog) are infamous for it.
first I was like:
What is wrong here ? that was funn....
Then a few posts later:
...oh, nevermind
i forgot what was the content of the article
It's a great site if you want to see that hack Gita write 5 articles a week about her characters in the Sims.
Jason just needs to go independent somehow. I'd Patreon that dude.
