Australia's Child Abuse Material Legislation: Protecting Imaginary Children?

Abstract

The production, circulation and possession of child pornography is a serious criminal activity that involves harm to the most vulnerable in society – children. Australian legislatures have rightfully attempted to prevent this harm by prohibiting child pornography through a range of child abuse material legislation. However, the definition of child pornography under the current legislation is broad enough to capture purely fictional representations of children and, thus, protects even imaginary characters who ‘appear to be’ a child. In doing so, the legislation targets not only the small minority of adults with paedophilic interests, but also persons who may inadvertently stumble on, or intentionally create such material, not knowing that it is illegal. Of concern is that the legislation potentially criminalises the very people it was designed to protect – young people – many of whom create and circulate sexually explicit fantasy material among peer groups on the internet. This article is one of a series of forthcoming research outputs that seeks to investigate the prohibition of purely fictional material under Australia’s child abuse material legislation, highlighting its problems and questioning whether the legislation meets its objectives of protecting real children from harm.