We'll just come right out and say it: some people are into cartoon porn. Heck, even if you're not "into" it, you may have accidentally happened upon it just by running an innocent Google Image Search with SafeSearch turned off (guilty as charged). If you live in Australia, however, you may want to take extra care that your porn stash doesn't contain cartoon imagery of children. A man in Australia was recently convicted for possessing pornographic images depicting characters from The Simpsons and The Powerpuff Girls, and is now a registered sex offender.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kurt James Milner was turned into police for having questionable material on his computer in early 2008, but due to technical difficulties, police were unable to retrieve information from his machine for more than a year. Once they were able to do so, however, they found 64 sexually explicit images depicting characters from the aforementioned TV shows. As many of you Simpsons fans know, there are numerous children who make regular appearances on the show, and they were apparently "not excluded from these images.''

As it turns out, the Australian Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that sexually explicit illustrations of children qualify as child pornography. Law enforcement agreed that Milner's images fell into that category, and he eventually pleaded guilty to possession of child exploitation material and using the Internet to get it. As a result, he was sentenced to a year in jail, but was wholly suspended for five years with a $1,000 bond for good behavior. He is also registered as a sex offender.

Milner's sentencing seems harsh, but this is neither his first conviction nor is it the first time an Australian court has gone after someone for possessing Simpsons porn. As pointed out by the Queensland Times, Milner was convicted in 2003 after police found 59 real child porn images on his machine and received two years probation. Though Milner defended his decision to go after the Powerpuff Girls instead by saying he thought they were "funny," it's clear that he tried to shift his focus (uh, yeah) to something he thought would be more legal. "Although these offences involve cartoon characters it is nonetheless serious especially since he has a prior conviction for child exploitation material," Crown Prosecutor Suzanne Cantatore said.

Another Australian was found guilty in 2008 of possessing a set of cartoons featuring Simpsons characters in which "sexual acts are depicted as being performed, in particular, by the 'children' of the family." Although the justice acknowledged that there are obvious differences between the Simpsons and actual humans, he said that they at least represent a person enough to justify the conviction. In that case, McEwan received a $3,000 fine and two years of court supervision.

The lesson here is clear: controversial or not, Australians should avoid underage cartoon characters when collecting clothing-optional illustrations if they want to stay out of trouble with the law.