Simpsons-style cartoon is child porn

AN internet cartoon showing characters modelled on Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson engaging in sex acts is child pornography, an Australian judge has ruled in a landmark case.

In February, at Sydney’s Parramatta Local Court, Alan John McEwan was convicted of possessing child pornography and using his computer to access such material. He was fined $3,000 (about €1,540) and required to enter a two-year good behaviour bond in relation to each offence.

McEwan appealed against the conviction, but it was dismissed in the New South Wales Supreme Court yesterday, with Justice Michael Adams concluding a fictional cartoon character is a “person” within the meaning of Commonwealth and New South Wales laws.

“The alleged pornography comprised a series of cartoons depicting figures modelled on members of the television animated series The Simpsons,” the judge said. “Sexual acts are depicted as being performed, in particular, by the ‘children’ of the family.

“The male figures have genitalia that is evidently human, as do the mother and the girl.”

He noted the figures made no pretence of imitating any actual or fictional human beings.

“In particular, the hands bear only four digits and the faces have eyes, a nose and mouth markedly and deliberately different to those of any possible human being,” he said.

A magistrate had rejected a submission that cartoon depictions or representations of fictional characters such as The Simpsons were not of “persons”.

Justice Adams said the legislation was calculated to deter production of other material, including cartoons, that “can fuel demand for material that does involve the abuse of children”.

He ordered each party to pay its own costs.