No, for the most part, it is actually not legal to possess lolicon in the USA under federal law. So, if you’re found with such content in whatever format, you might as well get into legal trouble, and we’re talking about some serious legal trouble here. But, let’s say you’re new to this Lolicon thing and don’t know much about it yet, then it is better to be safe than sorry, means, you should get to know a little more about it first before going down this route. Let’s understand it in a much better way.
What Is Lolicon?
The foremost thing is that lolicon is the representation of cartoon young girls in sexual or highly suggestive scenarios both in the anime and manga. The name is derived from a novel called Lola where a grown-up man is infatuated/obsessed and attracted towards a young girl. “Shotacon” is another term for this kind of situation that only concerns young males portrayed as objects of sexual desire.
However, keep in mind that even though it’s just drawing and not real children involved, the characters are still designed to look like minors. This is the exact reason why lolicon is a legal issue, specially in the United States.
How Is Lolicon Treated Legally in the U.S.?
The U.S. has strict laws on the portrayal of minors in sexual situations, meaning that even mere appearances of such acts are not to be taken lightly. This is where the issue of lolicon arises. In the event that the anime still contains characters who strongly resemble minors and engage in sexual acts, it can squarely fall under the child pornography laws.
To a large extent, the question of legal grounding for restrictions on speech in criminal law stems from the PROTECT Act of 2003, which intended to eradicate child exploitation of all types. In other words, the statute covers not just realistic sexual depictions but also draws potential crossovers to the offenders if they are found to be obscene and the intentional victims of the material to be minors.
It implies that the content, even though it is just a digital image, and fictional, it can be a reason for the offender’s imprisonment if found from his/her personal computer, even if the image is not shared.
Is Lolicon Protected As Free Speech or Art?
Those who take the affirmative position are of the view that lolicon, as it includes no real people, can be categorized as an art form or a type of free expression under the First Amendment. On the other hand, many those who oppose this idea strongly believe that such kind of content is loaded with harmful ideas and the same should be applied to it as to real child pornography.
The US legislation has it in the direction of the latter view. Should it come to be the case that the content is found to be obscene in the sense of showing childlike figures in very explicit situations, it could still be banned, as a general rule, no matter whether it has been “only a drawing.”
