I know I’m a bit late to the party on this, but that was because I wanted to perform my due diligence and wait for more info to come out before giving just my opinion.
However, after observing the discourse surrounding this matter, I felt maybe a forum post might help.
As the title of this thread suggests, a 24-year-old man from Norway was charged, convicted, and sentenced to 60 days in prison for possession and distribution of child pornography, as well as another child pornography count over a VN.
Unfortunately, Norwegian law does not differentiate between photos and videos of real-life child sexual exploitation and cartoon drawings of fictional characters.
(This blatant refusal to distinguish between mere ideas/concepts and recorded acts of child rape is despicable, and I struggle to understand the logic behind this.)
This point is made very apparent in both articles, despite the claim in the first article that, per the court, had the defendant been only charged for just the game and its contents, it would only have been punishable as a misdemeanor offense.
Much of the confusion and panic surrounding these news articles stems from the belief that the other images/videos he was convicted over were 2D images or were contents from the game, despite the articles never claiming, nor even alluding to, such a thing, with commentators pointing to how Norwegian law defines child pornography as their argument.
(Machine Translation)
This PC game could lead to prison time. Easily accessible online A Japanese PC game from 2015 was the subject of a case in Sør-Rogaland District Court today. The game shows animations that the police believe constitute abusive material.
This game is abuse material, according to the prosecution. Today, the trial began against a young man who is charged, among other things, with having played the game.
Investigator Erik Henna Hagen describes the game as a vulgar Tamagotchi.
Soma is not in doubt. The game in question is abuse material. Therefore, he included the game in the indictment against a 24-year-old man, who is also charged with possessing and sharing illegal images and videos.
- My client denies criminal guilt. He has admitted to playing the game, but explains that he set it up so that abuse was not part of it. The play history that the police found came with it when my client downloaded the game from the internet, says the defendant’s defender, lawyer Ørjan Eskeland.
Abuse material refers to images or videos that show sexual abuse of children or that sexualize children under 18 years of age.
As in so many such cases, the police got on the trail of the 24-year-old through a tip from the American organization NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).
Every year, Kripos forwards around 300 tips from the organization to the Sør-Vest police district.
The police raided the 24-year-old in November last year, and on his PC they found illegal content in the form of both images and videos. The prosecution believes they can present evidence that the young man has also shared such files with others.
Among other things, to protect themselves, investigators use a program developed to search for abuse material. That was how some screenshots from the game surfaced.
When the investigators looked closer, they found the game.
Already in the settings, they got a hint of what this was about. Players get the choice of whether to play with or without the possibility of abuse.
Vulgar Tamagotchi
Aftenbladet is told that the game is built as an interactive story. It starts with a man knocking on the door. He brings a girl. Your task is to take care of this girl.
- You then get the choice of whether to talk to her, pat her on the head, or assault her. Afterwards, you can choose to give her food. You can give a lot of food, a little food, or no food at all, says police officer Erik Henna
Hagen, who found the game on the 24-year-old’s PC.
In the 90s, the electronic pets “Tamagotchi” were popular. Hagen describes the game as an extremely vulgar version of the phenomenon.
- This girl, who is obviously under 18, becomes the player’s BDSM slave. Not only is she subjected to sexual abuse. There is also the abuse aspect. The player has all power over her, says the investigator.
Challenging
In the play history found on the defendant’s PC, it is recorded how many times the animated girl has been subjected to abuse. It states how many days have passed in the game and how often the girl has received food.
A quick online search shows that 97 percent of those who have rated the game give it a thumbs up. There is no place stating how old the animated girl is, but it is a common perception among those who have commented that she must be around 13 years old.
Perhaps it is because the sexual age of consent in several Asian countries is 13 years.
In Norway, the sexual age of consent is 16 years. However, Penal Code section 311 concerns sexualized images and videos of children under 18 years of age. The girl’s age is something
the court had to assess when the case was heard today.
- Legislation in Asia is liberal when it comes to animations. This game is completely legal in several countries. In Norway, it is punishable, we believe. For some, it seems to be a challenge to understand that
this is illegal material here in the country. At the same time, everyone has a responsibility, says Hagen.
- Extremely rare
Half a day was set aside for the trial against the 24-year-old. The penalty frame of 3 years in prison is rarely used to the full extent. The long processing time will in all likelihood lead to a milder sentence.
Have you ever previously come across games that you believe fall under Penal Code section 311?
Once. In August, another 24-year-old was sentenced to 3 months’ suspended prison after having been in contact with abuse material. We found illegal images and videos in addition to the defendant having had a game on his mobile phone that sexualizes children. He had deleted the game, and it is not mentioned in the judgment, says Hagen.
In this game, which the investigators installed anew, the player is a photographer. The models are young girls, and the pictures taken are sexualized.
The verdict will be appealed. Beyond that, I have no comment.
This is what the defendant’s defense attorney, lawyer Ørjan Eskeland, tells Aftenbladet.
In the South Rogaland District Court, the client is sentenced to 60 days in prison. In sentencing, the court places the most emphasis on 10 illegal photos and films that the young man has shared.
At the same time, it is emphasized that it is illegal to play the PC game that the defendant has admitted to playing.
As is often the case in this type of case, the investigation began with a tip from the American organization National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
NCMEC became aware that known abuse images had been shared from an IP address located in Norway.
The tip was sent to Kripos, which forwarded it to the South-West Police District since the IP address was located in the Stavanger region.
In court, the defendant explained that, in order to help others, he had shared several
images and films without checking what they were. He denied that he had intentionally shared images and films that sexualized children or that depicted child sexual abuse.
Because that’s what this was: Abuse material. There weren’t many pictures and films the young man shared, but the material was very crude, according to the verdict.
The court finds no basis for relying on the defendant’s explanation that he did not know what he was sharing. On the contrary, the verdict states that the young man shared the photos and films knowingly and intentionally.
In addition to the prison sentence, his computer and cell phone will be confiscated.
While he was using his mobile phone to share illegal material, he was playing an illegal game on his PC.
The game in question is from 2015 and, in short, is about taking care of an orphan. The game can be played in seven different modes, where modes 1 to 6 contain child abuse, and mode 0 is without abuse.
In court, the defendant explained that he had played the game in mode 0. The court assumes this. However, the court does not believe that the young man was unaware that child abuse was an option in the game.
“The game was reviewed in court, where the court could clearly see the comments that came even when starting the game in mode 0. When starting in mode 0, the player is informed that in this mode it is not possible to play out sexual situations. This clearly shows that it is possible to play out sexual situations in the other modes.”
The defendant is also sentenced to pay NOK 2,000 in legal costs.
English-speaking outlet Dexerto have also covered the matter, though, trying to access it redirects to their homepage.
A 24-year-old man from Sør-Rogaland, Norway, faces up to three years in prison after being charged with possessing a 2015 Japanese video game that authorities say qualifies as “abuse material.”
The game, Dorei to no Seikatsu (“Life with a Slave”), is a visual novel about caring for a young girl who has been abused by her former owner. The player can choose between seven modes, six of which contain sexual content involving minors.
According to Norwegian police, the suspect claimed he only played the version without sexual content. While the court accepted his statement, the game itself was still judged to be illegal under Norwegian law.
Police investigator Fredrik Martin Sørnes said the game’s content meets the legal definition of abuse material.
“It depicts sexual acts involving individuals under 18 years old,” Sørnes told Aftenbladet.
24-year-old charged for downloading illegal video game
The investigation began when Norwegian police received a tip from the U.S. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), which traced an IP address to the man in Rogaland. When officers raided his home, they seized his computer and discovered the game alongside other illegal files.
Police investigator Erik Henna Hagen described Dorei to no Seikatsu as “a vulgar Tamagotchi,” noting that it’s easily accessible online.
“Legislation in Asia is liberal when it comes to animations. This game is completely legal in several countries. In Norway, however, it is considered a crime. For some people, it can be difficult to understand that this is regarded as illegal material here,” he explained.
Although the man could face a maximum sentence of three years in prison, prosecutors say it’s unlikely to reach that length due to the slow handling of the case.
Authorities say this isn’t the first time Norway has prosecuted someone over similar material. In August, another man was sentenced to three months in jail after police found illegal videos and a video game that sexualized children on his phone.
Now then… there’s quite a bit to unpack here.
First and foremost, there is nothing in these articles which would lead readers to believe that he was reported by the NCMEC over online activities pertaining to the game. I see a LOT OF TWITTER POSTS flatly getting this bit wrong.
In fact, the game and screenshots from it were only found AFTER Norwegian authorities had already followed up on a Cybertip from the NCMEC, having seized his devices already found “images and videos” constituting child pornography on his PC.
It would only be revealed days later in a follow-up article after the trial that the materials which tipped off the NCMEC were “known abuse material” which the defendant had shared from his phone, allegedly “by mistake”.
This clarification is enough to confirm that the defendant had possessed and shared actual CSAM images, because the phrasing “known abuse material” is specific industry terminology used to denote material that had already been identified, verified, and hashed by the NCMEC and was identified via hash matching technology.
We already know that the NCMEC does not include cartoon/anime images within its CSAM hash database, since those do not meet the legal definition of child pornography. The NCMEC actively maintains this database of file hashes so that it can be shared with ESPs, governments, and NGOs throughout the world to facilitate the expedited identification and removal of verified child sexual abuse materials.
Moreover, the timeline of events leading up to the discovery of the game and its contents already rules out the possibility that virtual/fictional content was what lead to his arrest, because - again - the game and its contents were only found AFTER having already verified his possession of material included in the Cybertip.
The discourse surrounding this completely fails to acknowledge these facts, opting instead to misrepresent the NCMEC’s role in this matter while also selling an incomplete, misleading narrative that incites outrage and panic among fans and consumers, and may even motivate bad actors to report obvious fiction as if it were genuine abuse material.
I urge everyone here to carefully read through this matter and come to the right conclusions.