Govt uses Obscenity Law to stuff up cartoon sex loophole

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    Date: 
    23 January 2009

    New Parliament, new legislation – and time for the government’s favourite pastime of "closing loopholes". This time it's about even more dangerous pictures, or maybe less dangerous, given that the subject matter is - allegedly - cartoons.

    The government last week proposed, via s49 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, to make illegal the possession of "prohibited images of children". This sub-title – as so much else about government legislation in this area – is seriously misleading, since the images to be prohibited will in future be anything but images of children.