Organizations fighting child pornography have renewed their fight for stronger measures, taking aim with a petition delivered recently to welfare minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki that argues against entrenched tolerance for sexual abuse of minors. The renewed call for action followed an important revision of the law on child prostitution and porn that took effect in July, following revisions that took effect in July 2014. Despite making possession of child pornography illegal, those revisions did little, the groups argued, to crack down on the larger problem.
Their concerns over the production and ownership of obscene materials involving male and female children under the age of 18 should be taken into greater consideration by the government and police. The stepped-up law does include larger fines and stronger penalties for those convicted of being involved in child pornography. However, the groups argue that the government and police have not taken sufficient measures to ensure the law is enforced.
Their criticisms need to be incorporated into current policy. However, the issue is complicated by producers of child pornography adept at working in gray zones. Photo albums, DVDs and online video streaming that include nudity of preteen children are often at the borderline of what could be construed as artistically nonsexual. That difficulty in defining exactly what is or is not pornographic and abusive, however, should force clearer guidelines with stricter and more exacting legal rulings.