Dutch Study on Fictional Material

Soo…

Someone recommended this to me on Twitter sometime ago but I hadn’t looked at it until today. It goes over MAPs and their use of it, but it’s mostly focused on the use of things like 2D/3DCG lolicon/shotacon and how it affects them and they use it, with much of its data coming in the form of surveys and by observing user discussion.

As someone who pays attention to individuals like this, it’s very refreshing to see the things I know and have observed be validated on an empirical level.

I used DeepL and my extremely limited knowledge of Dutch to read it. I’ll leave the abstract (which is in English) and link both the study and DeepL.

“Virtuele kinderpornografie vs geanimeerde volwassenenpornografie”

Abstract

Virtual child pornography has been on the rise for several years, while it remains unclear to whom such material is attractive. This research investigates any overlap between watchers of animated adult pornography and of virtual child pornography. It also examines (opinions on) the reasons for consuming virtual child pornography, including how this varies for (non-)realistic virtual pornography and (non-)paedophiles. The mixed methods study consists of an online survey and a focus group with nonoffending paedophiles. Results show similarities between the two types of animated pornography. There appears to be an overlap between those who have watched animated adult pornography and those who have watched virtual child pornography. Watching either types of animated pornography is associated with a higher chance of being attracted to real or fictional minors, though these associations are stronger in the case of virtual child pornography. Reasons for watching virtual child pornography encompassed a whole range of reasons, ranging from an aesthetic preference for animated (child) pornography, to it filling a therapeutic function. The latter reason partly explains the more positive opinion of paedophiles on the phenomenon compared to non-paedophiles.

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Maybe it won’t hurt to throw this in and bump the thread.

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a study in dutch, from belgium

De overlapping tussen (realistische) virtuele
kinderpornografie en geanimeerde
volwassenenpornografie
Een studie naar meningen en doelpubliek

Masterproef neergelegd tot het behalen van
de graad van Master in de Criminologische Wetenschappen
door 01810695 Pattyn Renée

there is an english version of the abstract, but thesis paper was mostly dutch

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That is the same study that Chie posted. Also, funny that they seem to slowly, but surely understand just how popular Lolicon is. It has been one of the most popular tag on all hentai sites, where it is available, forever. In terms of quantity, too. According to the biggest hentai manga site lolicon is the 5th largest tag.

How is this so suprising whenever all popular porn sites have “Teen” categories? You could simply call it “petite” but teen is deliberately used. It is so hilarious what taboo leads to.

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The medical stance in Denmark, Finland, and I guess to an extent Netherlands on fictional material is converging. And I’m sure all professionals must be aware of the stigma and panic associated with these issues.

So my opinion is:

Widespread stigma is by and far the biggest obstacle to advancing to more effective and humane handling of CSA. It kinda makes sense that yourselves as well as all these national orgs get together and pen a public letter on how this stigmatization of fictional content is ineffective and creates unwitting victims and is largely sustained by ingrained moral panic. A joint body of national orgs and child-protection orgs with all their authoritative weight would go a long way to shaking up the public discourse and increasing public support and optics of legitimacy.

And the people being shamed and hounded every day could sure use the support.

At this point it’s a major win simply if the public discourse changes from what it is to “it’s under dispute by experts”.

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The problem is that a lot of child protection orgs care about public opinion and what looks good to donors more than actually protecting children. So many won’t listen to inconvenient research even when it’s staring them in the face. Funnily enough, free speech and privacy advocates typically have a better track record when it comes to promoting controversial policies that are proven to protect children

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Is this true everywhere though? What about going public individually in their own country? If not orgs then what about consortiums of experts and academics? What about other forms of public health announcements? Push some part of the discussion into the public sphere and clear up some misconceptions.

Academics and researchers are not in the business of validating popular beliefs or presumptions regarding particularly controversial or uncomfortable subject matter. I’d argue that the mere presence of those aspects should be motivation to adhere to rigid, objective standards informed solely by their scientific work, and not cave into the negative emotional biases that others would hope be reflected in their work.

I think it’s clear that these materials do not promote harmful materials or actions. Virtual/fictional child pornography is harmless.
No evidence exists to support the contention that it would promote risk or a sexual interest in actual minors, or subsequently affect the risk profiles of those with a predisposed degree of risk.

I can only hope that society will be willing to be informed by these findings, and not challenge or dispute them like certain Australian researchers seem to have, who seem to be clinging to unfounded and outright moralistic arguments misrepresented as scientific points.

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The issue at hand is interdisciplinary: it touches upon aspects of psychology, child safety, internet freedom, prison reform, groomer panic debunking, sex-positivism, callouts of fascist emotional manipulation and hysteria tactics, sex work etc. when you look at what Prostasia is advocating for, they are actually pretty damn progressive, with the only things spooking normies actually being the idea of drawings of kiddie sex and sex dolls.

Rightwingers are much more united in their front and even contradictory when you look at things like pro-gun & anti-sex-doll, the gun nuts, nofappers, anti-abortion, qanoners, tax cuts all their groups huddle together with much more cohesiveness. To the extent to which there are supporters in each of these leftie groups, I think more effort and coordination should be fostered to bring them together as they each complete one another’s narrative. And when each of their own issues join to advocate cohesively for the same framework, the receptiveness to understanding the harms of- and ditching- the sexual-deviancy framework becomes not only easier, but natural.

I understand that as it stands Prostasia’s fight for informing the public is only one of the many facets of what it does for child protection, but people running the org or participating in whatever capacity have connections and should seriously consider perhaps a dedicated group that brainstorms new ways of outreach to the public sphere. It would make sense for example for a group like EFF to say “by the way policing this content doesn’t solve crime” or some prison reform group to be doing the same thing.

Finally on the multi-front approach it should be not only about the multiple orgs who can talk about their side of how this flawed framework perpetuates problems, but about the multiple ways in which each issue is wrong in.

For example in the Belgian study it is stated that only a fraction of people were consuming loli due to pedophilic attraction. Many were doing it either because yes-it’s-an-anime-and-there’s-a-kid-sex-scene-somewhere-but-it’s-not-the-point, because they were trying to process their own emotions, or because the taboo was part of the thrill. Driving the point that treating instances of consumption as all pedophilic casts a wide net that hurts way more people who have no such attractions, attacks the issue from an angle that “fiction doesn’t hurt, trust us” can’t satisfy alone. Presenting this in the context of how indiscriminate bans hurt more than they help right alongside of cases of minors getting jailed for being caught with nudes of themselves/same-age partners to drive home the point that these things have to be thought out thoroughly not only eases the argument in, but also gets the foot in the door with the idea that this is a dangerous hammer to weild that has destroyed lives before, working to chip away at the public consensus that is just “yeah just do maximum penalties for these monsters”.

There’s nothing duplicitous about this since these are all arguments we’re already making. It’s all about optimizing the flow and easing it in with applied knowledge of psychology of the masses.

I also think more movies/documentaries about how the flaws of the current approach are hurting people should ease the public consciousness into the idea. The cycle of politicians only voting one way due to the social stigma, money being wasted and innocents getting hurt, and ongoing sex abuses that remain out of grasp because of policy need to make periodic presence to get into people’s heads that there is a problem. They may not yet be ready en masse for overhauling the entire framework but the idea that a problem exists and that at its core the public one-track-mindedness on the issue perpetuates it goes a long way.

Even if they don’t all come out together and say “Prostasia is the way” loudly - and probably shouldn’t as that would be a far easier cow to milk for fearmongers - multidisciplinary advocacy and allowing the many points to come together on their own and start painting a conclusion in the public mind. They would trust the conclusions more if they were playing their own part in putting the puzzle together.

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