Australian Senator Highlights Anime Depicting “Child Exploitation” in Speech, Calls for “Review” of All Anime & Manga

This Wednesday, Australian Senator Stirling Griff called for the “review” of Japanese manga and anime depicting child exploitation. In a speech delivered to parliament, Griff highlighted anime and manga series that depict child exploitation—citing as an example the anime adaptation of Tsukasa Fushimi and Hiro Kanzaki’s light novel series Eromanga Sensei.

Griff says in his speech,

“There is, unfortunately, a dark side and a disgusting side to anime and manga, with a significant proportion of the two media featuring child abuse material. They contain depictions of wide-eyed children, usually in school uniforms, engaged in explicit sexual activities and poses, and often being sexually abused.”

He further calls Eromanga Sensei as the “worst” example of anime series with child abuse themes, saying, “The series also heavily features incest themes and many scenes are so disturbing I just won’t, I just can’t, describe them.”

Eromanga Sensei, which has received an MA15+ rating (meaning, such material contains strong content and is restricted to viewers 15 years old and below) from the Australia Classification Board, is among one of the many anime Griff and some experts claim could be used by pedophiles as tools to groom children and act as a gateway to sexually exploit them.

Griff has also criticized the Australia Classification Board for their lenient ratings on anime series like Eromanga Sensei. “The classification board appears to be making decisions in isolation to criminal law. This must stop.”

Under Australian law, possession, production, and distribution of material depicting the abuse or the representation of such of a person who appears to be under 18 years old is illegal and punishable by law. In Japan, on the other hand, child pornography laws do not include anime and manga as these do not depict real children.

Eromanga Sensei’s story is described by Anime News Network as such:

“Masamune Izumi is a light novel author in high school. His artist, known only as “Eromanga Sensei” is reliable but Masamune has never met him and assumes he’s just a perverted otaku. Masamune’s little sister is Sagiri, a shut-in girl who hasn’t left her room for an entire year. She even forces her brother to make and bring her meals when she stomps the floor. Masamune wants his sister to leave her room, because the two of them are each other’s only family.

One day Masamune discovers that Eromanga Sensei and Sagiri are one and the same. Further chaos erupts between the siblings when a beautiful, female, best-selling shoujo manga creator becomes their rival.”

Source: Canberra Times