Grooming, Child Abuse, & Child Sexual Exploitation
Hentai and the Pornification of Childhood: How the Porn Industry Just Made the Case for Regulation.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
One of the most popular genres of online pornography today is hentai, sexualized animation, and cartoons in the style of Japanese anime. Data from Pornhub, the world’s best-known pornography website, as well as a recent report from a British regulatory agency and our research, show that much of hentai appeals to children and depicts child-like characters engaged in sexual violence. In almost every instance, this violence targets female characters. Hentai, we show, encourages adults to see minors, especially girls, as legitimate targets of sexual violence. Until the day when these depictions of sexual violence are eradicated, we call for three ameliorative steps: age verification legislation; civil lawsuits; and sex education through a porn-critical lens.
Relevance
Hentai represents the “pornification of childhood.” This is concerning for four reasons. First, it grooms men into seeing children as legitimate sexual targets. Second, it puts young people, as does all pornography, “at risk for a slate of harms to their mental, sexual, and physical health.” Third, hentai “grooms children into becoming adult consumers of porn.” Fourth, hentai and much of the other content on major porn platforms “depicts legally defined criminal acts of sexual violence….aimed at women.”
This article proposes a three-pronged attack on the misogyny of hentai.
One: Legally require all porn sites to block users who have not demonstrated that they have not reached the age of 18 or legal majority, using age assurance and age verification technologies.
Two: utilize the civil court system to find major porn sites accountable for harm and thus liable for monetary redress.
Three: “pressure lawmakers to legislate the teaching of comprehensive, age-appropriate, and accurate sex education at all levels of the educational system” and for all students, even those home-schooled and who attend parochial schools.
Citation
Dines, G., & Sanchez, M. (2023) Hentai and the Pornification of Childhood: How the Porn Industry Just Made the Case for Regulation. Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence, 8(1), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2023.08.01.03
