Too far down the Yellow Brick Road – Cyber-hysteria and Virtual Porn

‘Cyberporn’ is one of the great moral panics of our age. Indeed, the development of Web 2.0 and the rapid increase of user generated content have opened the floodgates to the number of pornographic websites available. Everybody is familiar, and most are in agreement with the argument against indecent images of children. Few would argue –none successfully – for the law to go easier on those who produce and circulate such images, but an increasingly complicated legal landscape is in danger of stretching the limits of legislation to include what are essentially drawings of children found online or in virtual communities and criminalise those who produce, possess or view them. This paper will consider the necessary response of the United Kingdom’s legislature to these problems.