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The United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of the Child have published comments received from various nations on its “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child” draft law they announced back in February.
The law came under scrutiny from some nations. While the law would be used to enforce the restriction child prostitution and media depicting sexually exploited children, they feared its terminology around the latter would be too vague.
This could result in the prosecuting of individuals not engaged in creating or viewing such material (i.e. child characters not in sexually explicit activity, or characters in sexually explicit activity that were not children).
The UN posted various responses to their proposal from various nations and organizations. The United States, Japan and Austria all laid out issues they had with the proposed law. The United States (in summary) stated they wished their own local laws to take precedent over the UN’s proposed laws:
Japan also stated similar concerns, stating removing audio and written material from the law, as well as clarification on whether an allegedly offending piece of media is depicting a child.
Finally, Austria also expressed its concerns, stating that EU law already had a definition that they felt were more accurate.
Similar comments expressing the definitions were too broad were also expressed by Prostasia, Teenagers Group Against the Prohibition of Comics Animation and Games and the Center for Japanese Language and Culture. They also expressed disagreement that such offending material- correctly identified or otherwise- would encourage real life abuses.
Groups also expressed their concerns about the proposed law. The Japan Society For Studies in Cartoons and Comics (JSSCC) expressed concern that the context of a piece of media would not matter under the law:
In the example above,
Berserk features a character who was sexually abused as a child. While not intended to be for primarily sexual purposes, the JSSCC argues the proposed law as it stands would be banned under the new law- despite it not being intended to do so.
Other nations and groups did not express disagreement with the proposed definitions.
