But a series of police raids late last year on producers of a photo shoot DVD
starring a schoolgirl appear to have changed the situation.
"The girl's swimsuit was deliberately made to be see-through, it was so
tight-fitting you could make out the shape of her genitalia and she'd been
posed in such risqu? positions that the Metropolitan Police Department decided
to arrest the maker for breaking the law banning child pornography even though
the girl hadn't actually exposed her bust or between her legs," a reporter from
a sports newspaper tells Weekly Playboy.
The arrest was the first time somebody had been picked up for breaking the
Child Pornography Law without proliferating images featuring nudity.
Eventually, though, the charge had to be downgraded to a violation of the Child
Welfare Law, but the effect of the arrest reached far.
"Ever since the arrest, makers of products featuring teens in erotic poses have
been in a state of panic. If material is judged to be overly obscene, people
can be arrested for breaking the Child Pornography Law, even if the model is
dressed in a swimsuit," says an employee of a medium-sized DVD manufacturer
producing material featuring models under 15 years old. "DVD shops and
wholesalers are now on their guard and have stopped taking materials featuring
models under 15, even if the product looks like being a surefire seller."
Furi Nakamura, a journalist who specializes in covering the under-15 market,
says there is a definite mood of self-restraint spreading among purveyors of
photo collections and DVDs using child cheesecake.
"Situations are going to become crucial," the under-15 expert tells Weekly
Playboy. "By that, I mean the situations where models are presented. Say, for
example, a young model is decked out in an extremely skimpy bikini, the maker
won't get in trouble if the photos are taken in an appropriate situation, like
a pool or the beach. It's when you get the young models lying around on a bed,
making provocative poses and stuff, that you're going to have the real problems
-- even if they're wearing standard school-issue swimsuits, which aren't
revealing at all. The key is going to be how natural producers will be able to
make their images appear."
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