On trusting the government

Awhile ago I wrote about a new law that had been passed that basically criminalized half of the BDSM community. This happened more because of broad wording than intent. Well... stated intent, anyway. When teams of people work on the exact wording of a law and choose to leave it broad and up for interpretation, it makes me nervous.

Well, they've done it again. Non-photograpic, pornographic images of children are now illegal. But there is no definition of what constitutes pornography in this case. They have not specifically said "a child engaged in a sex act" so is the fountain on the top of this post illegal?

It worries me enough that things that are drawn or written as fantasy and fiction are being censored. But to some degree I can understand why. I'm not sure I would support it, but I can understand it. But things that are harmless are now illegal, following the letter of the law. And it puts me in an awkward position because some things that I love could be considered illegal.

I've mentioned before that I'm a huge anime geek. Obviously a lot of shota and loli material would probably be illegal, but so could some fairly basic animes. One of my favourites features high school-aged children. Well actually, if we're being honest they're monsters in human form. There's nothing in there that I would consider pornographic. No sexual acts apart from a kiss has ever been shown. But it is still a sexually charged atmosphere and there are constant pantie shots. It's more humourous than sexual, really. But I guess if we follow the exact wording, it's illegal. And I just have to trust that the government won't target something that harmless.

I am absolutely a proponent of child protection. There isn't much that I feel more strongly about. But this trend of leaving so much open for interpretation concerns me. We shouln't have to trust our government to this degree. Even if the current plan it to target only the extremes, the groundwork is already there to target the minutia in the future. If a law was passed that made smoking anything illegal, would people be pacified if they said they were only targeting illicit drugs? I think not.