In Japan, the viewing of hentai, or sexually explicit cartoons, is a mainstream activity. But it's far from accepted in many other countries. In fact, now a New Zealand man has been sentenced to three months in jail for watching cartoons of "elves, pixies, and other fantasy creatures" have sex.

The man's lawyer said the Japanese anime cartoons consisted of creatures that "you knew at a glance weren't human," and said his client's conviction for possessing digitally created pornography represents "the law gone mad."

The characters were "clearly young elves and pixies, which led to concerns the images were linked to child sexual abuse," reported Fairfax NZ News. New Zealand anti-child pornography activists defended the conviction, saying the images could encourage people "to migrate from there to the real thing."

In the US, the legality of "virtual child pornography" which involves created images of children has been debated in courts. Regular child pornography isn't protected by free-speech rules, because the production of the images is itself harmful to children. Distribution and viewing of such images is also illegal, as that activity contributes to the market for a product that harms children.

However, the legality of "virtual" child porn was upheld in a 2002 US Supreme Court ruling, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. In response to that ruling, Congress passed a 2003 law called the PROTECT Act, with more specific language about what kind of computer images are banned. If a computer-generated image is "indistinguishable from" child pornography, then it can be prosecuted even if no actual child was involved.

Thus, making "fake" child porn is a really bad idea and can land you in jail. In the US, people have been prosecuted for viewing animated pictures of children having sex.

But the "indistinguishable from" language—drawn straight from the Supreme Court's ruling in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition case—means that watching young elves, pixies, and other non-humans get it on will probably remain legal.