[Disclaimer: While this blog post discusses Rule 34 statistics, it doesn't contain explicit imagery, embedded links to pornographic material or excessive coarse language. However, it does contain excessive horse language.]

It's the tenth of the month, so you know what that means. That's right! It's time for another in-depth analysis of clop!



My previous Rule 34 blog posts are available at the following links.

August 2012 / At the rate things are going...

September 2012 / Famous Bronies

October 2012 / Digimon

November 2012 / Equestrian elections

December 2012 / Top 11 Hottest Animated Women

January 2013 / General porn statistics

February 2013 / Touhou review

March 2013 / Season three wrap up

April 2013 / Idolm@ster

May 2013 / OC woes

June 2013 / Ribald Rivalries

July 2013 / A major announcement

August 2013 / Rule 34 Origins

September 2013 / Equestria Girls Review

October 2013 / Three years of MLP:FIM

November 2013 / Season Three Episode Retrospective

December 2013 / Twilight Sparkle's Rival

January 2014 / Passing the Bechdel Test

Without further ado, here's the latest Rule 34 statistics!

As of February 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34, according to Rule34.paheal.net:

Pokemon still holds the lead with 72,159 images. 1,351 new explicit images were added during January, giving Pokemon a 1.9% increase in porn from last month. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is in second place with 47,310 images. 2,511 new explicit images were added during January, giving My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a 5.6% increase in porn from last month. Touhou is in third place with 45,108 images. 784 new explicit images were added during January, giving Touhou a 1.7% increase in porn from last month. DC Comics is in fourth place with 23,541 images. 246 new explicit images were added during January, giving DC Comics a 1% increase in porn from last month. Street Fighter is in fifth place with 17,705 images. 187 new explicit images were added during January, giving Street Fighter a 1% increase in porn from last month. Naruto is in sixth place with 17,197 images. 131 new explicit images were added during January, giving Naruto a 0.7% increase in porn from last month. Marvel Comics is in seventh place with 16,904 images. 205 new explicit images were added during January, giving Marvel Comics a 1.2% increase in porn from last month. Sonic Team is in eighth place with 15,381 images. 315 new explicit images were added during January, giving Sonic Team a 2% increase in porn from last month. Digimon is in ninth place with 11,916 images. 214 new explicit images were added during January, giving Digimon a 1.8% increase in porn from last month. Idolm@ster is in tenth place with 10,452 images. 16 new explicit images were added during January, giving Idolm@ster a 0.1% increase in porn from last month.

MLP is currently less than 25,000 images away from Pokemon. If MLP averages 2,500 images per month, they'll have more than 72,000 images by the end of 2014. That being said, it's likely that Pokemon will have more than 90,000 images before the end of the year. Within the last year, MLP produced roughly 7,000 more explicit images than Pokemon. The path to smut supremacy seems to stretch on for eternity. It may take years before My Little Pony surpasses Pokemon in terms of total porn production. I'm astounded at the progress that's been made in just a little over three years. My Little Pony has covered a lot of ground, yet the road seems to go ever on.

Now that we've gone over the monthly update for the top ten porn producers, it's time to analyze the latest data regarding Rule 34 images for the mane six.

As of February 10, 2014, here's the state of Rule 34 for the mane six, according to Rule34.paheal.net:

Twilight Sparkle has 7,119 images. 375 explicit images were added during January, giving her a 5.5% increase from last month. Rainbow Dash has 6,029 images. 265 explicit images were added during January, giving her a 4.5% increase from last month. Fluttershy has 5,390 images. 330 explicit images were added during January, giving her a 6.5% increase from last month. Pinkie Pie has 5,214 images. 267 explicit images were added during January, giving her a 5.3% increase from last month. Rarity has 4,566 images. 295 explicit images were added during January, giving her a 6.9% increase from last month. Applejack has 4,490 images. 233 explicit images were added during January, giving her a 5.4% increase from last month.

So, the big news: Chun-Li has finally been surpassed by Twilight Sparkle, who has ascended to become the undisputed Princess of Porn.



On October 10th, 2010, Twilight Sparkle debuted in the premiere episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The first Rule 34 image of her was made by an artist named No-Ink and uploaded to rule34.paheal.net on October 14th, 2010. Due to the rules of FIMfiction, I can't show the actual image, but here's a SFW example of No-Ink's art style.



In the months and years that followed, the amount of new Twilight Sparkle porn soon surpassed the output for any other character. Three years and four months after her first appearance, Twilight Sparkle has dominated in terms of dirty drawings. Rule34.paheal.net has been around for nearly seven years and Twilight Sparkle is the first individual character on the site to reach 7,000 explicit images.



ALL HAIL TWILIGHT SPARKLE, PRINCESS OF PORN!

It took Twilight Sparkle three years and four months to become the Ruler of Rule 34. I couldn't have planned that better myself if I tried. Let's join together in celebrating Twilight Sparkle's crude coronation!



Twilight Sparkle wasn't the only one to reach a milestone this month! Rainbow Dash now has more than 6,000 images and Pinkie Pie has more than 5,000 images. Congratulations, fillies!



Special thanks to Infinion, who made these amazing graphs of the data I collected.

To start off with, here's the master chart of the top ten Rule 34 producers.



This chart represents more than three years' worth of Rule 34 data. In order to more closely examine the numbers, Infinion has broken the data into more manageable semi-annual charts.

Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.

Apr. - Sept. 2011.

Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.

Apr. - Sept. 2012.

Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.

Apr. - Sept. 2013.

Which brings us to Feb. 2014.



To get an idea of how far My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has come since its premiere, here's a chart highlighting the monthly numerical and percentage increase of MLP porn.



For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the top ten porn producers, as well as their monthly increase.

Now let's take a look at the Rule 34 stats for the mane six. Here's their master chart.



In order to discover what these numbers mean, we'll need to delve deeper. In order to do that, we'll break down the data into semi-annual chunks.

Oct. 2010 - Mar. 2011.

Apr. - Sept. 2011.

Oct. 2011 - Mar. 2012.

Apr. - Sept. 2012.

Oct. 2012 - Mar. 2013.

Apr. - Sept. 2013.

Which brings us to Feb. 2014.



For those who desire a more consolidated look at the raw data, here's the numbers for the mane six, as well as their monthly increase.

Regular Internet use is causing people to become desensitized to sex and violence at an increasingly younger age.



For better or worse, there are very few taboos left in our culture. Today I'm going to talk about one of them. Some people may be offended by what I'm about to discuss. For that very reason, I want to preface my remarks with a comparison.



The Saw films are widely regarded as the origin of "Torture Porn." While these films may have revitalized the interest for the genre, its genesis can be traced back much further. Cannibal Holocaust in an infamous film from 1980 which served as a precursor for two popular modern movie genres: torture porn and found footage films. Cannibal Holocaust is considered one of the most controversial movies ever made because the director included footage which depicted the slow torture and death of actual animals. The visceral realism of genuine animals being butchered, coupled with convincing gore effects in the film led many to believe that Cannibal Holocaust was actually a snuff film. (The term "snuff" comes from an archaic term for murder, in which a life is "snuffed out" like a candle being extinguished.)

After Cannibal Holocaust was released, director Ruggero Deodato was arrested in Italy for obscenity. The charges were amended to include murder, since the courts not only believed that the four actors who portrayed the missing film crew were really killed on camera, but they also believed that the actress in the impalement scene had actually been skewered.



Deodato was forced to reveal the secrets behind the film's convincing gore effects and prove that the actors were still alive. I've previously discussed how rape is abhorrent while also saying that people should not be made to feel ashamed for engaging in a rape fantasy with other consenting adults. In that same vein, murder committed in snuff films are far removed from the fictional violence and death portrayed in mainstream movies.



Most of us are able to distinguish between fictional violence and real murder. Regrettably, there are still plenty of people out there who see no difference between rape and rape fantasy.

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Today's subject is more taboo than either of the previous topics. We're going to talk about explicit material involving children; (Hereafter referred to as CP.)



It should be noted that this isn't a debate on whether CP is good or bad. Just like the previous discussion regarding rape wasn't about whether or not the act of rape was bad. In the case of CP or rape, they are both deplorable acts of sexual assault which create victims with scars that never fully heal.

No. The topic for debate is whether or not Rule 34 of underage fictional characters should be considered CP, and all that that implies.



First of all, how how does one determine a cartoon character's age? For example, what about a character who is stated to be over a hundred years old, yet has the appearance of a 15-years-old? This is a very common fantasy trope for vampires, elves and Atlanteans.



Is this CP? Is the age of the illustrated character determined by their fictional age or their fictional appearance? And what exactly is the "age of consent" for cartoons? What is the basis upon which a fictional illustration is considered a minor?

Twilight Sparkle made her debut in 2010, which would make her less than four years old. However, she's portrayed as being mature enough to live on her own in the show, which would place her in her late teens or early twenties.

Lisa Simpson first premiered in 1987, which would make her twenty-seven years old. And yet she's portrayed as an eight-year-old girl on the Simpsons.



In 2008, Alan John McEwan was convicted in Sydney, Australia of possessing CP and fined $3,000. The images in question were of Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson having sex. McEwan tried to appeal the decision, arguing that the fictional cartoon characters could not be considered people as they “plainly and deliberately” departed from the human form.



Justice Michael Adams ruled that while The Simpsons characters had hands with four fingers and their faces were “markedly and deliberately different to those of any possible human being," the fact that they were not realistic reproductions of human beings did not mean that they could not be considered people.

In his judgement, Justice Adams said: "In my view the magistrate was correct in determining that … the word 'person' included fictional or imaginary characters. If the persons were real, such depictions could never be permitted."

Justice Adams said the legislation's main purpose was to combat the direct sexual exploitation and abuse of children that occurs where offensive images of real children are made. But, he said, it was also calculated to deter production of other material, including cartoons, which "can fuel demand for material that does involve the abuse of children."

"I suspect the Judge might have just inadvertently granted human rights to cartoon characters." -Neil Gaiman

What's really galling is that McEwan was fined $3,000 in 2008 for possessing images of Simpsons porn, when people paid good money to see Bart's prepubescent pecker on the big screen in the Simpson's movie the previous year.



McEwan was a victim of thought crime. He was punished based on what he might do and not for anything he did. Laws against CP are supposed to protect real children; not fictional characters. McEwan and any future people punished by this law are not being punished for looking at sexually explicit pictures of fictional characters, but are being punished because this judge decided that their thoughts were morally reprehensible and they might harm real children in the future.

If this ruling in Australia was stringently enforced throughout the world, it would pose a serious problem for comic book collectors and comic book retailers. Famous erotic graphic novels such as “The Lost Girls,” (in which Alice from Wonderland, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Wendy Darling from Peter Pan meet as adults in 1913 and share descriptions of their erotic adventures with each other), would be considered CP. Possessing such material could result in jail time and the person charged would have to register as a sex offender.



Coincidentally, Alan Moore voiced himself in an episode of the Simpsons where he can be seen signing copies of The Lost Girls.

This wasn't just an isolated incident in Australia, either. In 2001, a then 22-year-old Ohio man named Brian Dalton was sentenced to ten years in prison for writing his sexual fantasies in a private diary. Dalton had previously been arrested in 1998 for possessing photographs of CP.



After spending several months in jail, Dalton was released on probation and ordered to participate in a sex-offender treatment program. Dalton was arrested for failing to comply with the terms of his probation.

While Dalton's parents were cleaning their son's apartment in his absence, they discovered Dalton's journal and turned it over to the police. The contents of the diary described Dalton's fantasies involving three children - two of them his cousins - ages 10 and 11. Dalton's diary described placing them in a cage in his basement, and detailed how the children were abducted, raped and tortured.

Dalton was writing fictional stories about real people, which is admittedly not as far removed from reality as Simpsons porn. In spite of the accounts including explicit descriptions involving real children, no proof was ever found that anything written in Dalton's diary pertained to actual events. Dalton's cousins were questioned and neither of them reported that Dalton has ever molested them. Police investigations found no evidence to support the claims that anything in Dalton's diary was factual.

Dalton initially pled guilty because he was concerned that if the diary were entered into evidence at his trial, its contents would become public and further embarrass him and his family. The conviction gained international attention as the first time that an American had been sentenced to prison for writing his sexual fantasies in a private diary. The ACLU stepped in and were able to overturn Dalton's conviction in 2003.

"Brian Dalton's conviction raised the darkly chilling case of a man punished not for what he did, but for what he thought," ACLU of Ohio Legal Director Raymond Vasvari said, "However disturbing his ideas, in America, every person is entitled to record his thoughts without the fear of prison."

While the First Amendment doesn't protect CP, the United States Supreme Court determined that imaginary depictions of underage erotica cannot be criminalized because their creation "records no crime and creates no victim." In 2002, the ruling of Ashcroft vs. Free Speech Coalition, declared the federal Child Pornography Prevention Act unconstitutional, in large part because it criminalized the creation of "virtual pornography" involving youthful images.

Isn't the point of CP laws to protect children from exploitation? If no actual children are exploited or harmed or used in the creation of an illustration or story it should not be considered CP.

In 1999, Milton Diamond, (a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Hawaii), and Ayako Uchiyama, (of the National Research Institute of Police Science in Japan), observed a strong correlation between the dramatic rise of pornographic material in Japan from the 1970s onwards and a dramatic DECREASE in reported sexual violence, including crimes by juveniles and assaults on children under 13. They cite similar findings in Denmark and West Germany. In their summary, they state that "the concern that countries with widespread availability of sexually explicit material would suffer increased rates of sexual crimes was not validated."



So what's the real message? The Down With Molestia crowd and those who oppose "rape culture" are doing more harm than good. There's a correlation between increased access to porn and a decrease in reported sexual violence. Some fetishes remain fantasies because they are illegal to carry out in real life. For example, some people are aroused by asphyxiation fantasies. There are sites that specialize in making fictional videos and illustrations of women being strangled, hanged, smothered, drowned, etc. Does that mean that all the people who get turned on by watching such videos or looking at that type of artwork are going to go out and become serial killers? After all, if they get turned on by watching women being asphyxiated in videos and artwork, they're going to want to do it for real, right? People who want to ban rape jokes are cut from the same cloth as those who try to blame violent video games for school shootings.



Which isn't to say that all rape jokes are funny. The edgier the comedy, the easier it is to get wrong. If people who tell rape jokes were video games, Daniel Tosh would be E.T. for the Atari.



Stifling creative expression because it involves rape fantasy or sexualizes fictional children won't reduce sexual violence. If porn availability reduces rape, then removing a healthy outlet for certain fetishes would lead to an increase in sexual crime. If the Down With Molestia crowd wants to decrease the number of rapes, they should try to increase the availability of porn worldwide, including rape fantasy.



The Down With Molestia crowd could raise money to fly John Joseco out to South Africa and have him draw porn there in an effort to reduce rape. Humanized Zecora in maid bondage would probably be a huge hit.



If we work together, we can reduce rape by promoting "rape culture!"



I say all this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. I fully realize that it will take more than an increase in porn to reduce the sexual exploitation of women and children in South Africa.



I mentioned this because I consider it the height of folly to assume that removing jokes about rape will somehow reduce rape. (It's not like removing blonde jokes would reduce the number of blondes.) Claiming a victory for social justice after the Molestia tumblr goes down is like bragging that you got Pedro Lopez to stop leaving the toilet seat up.



I apologize for getting sidetracked with attacks against rape culture. If I can bring the discussion full circle, I'd like to end with the reason why I'm discussing CP in the first place. Efforts are underway which would attempt to remove porn of fictional children from rule34.paheal.net. The site was created as a Rule 34 repository, but in the interest of complying with government laws, certain things are going to be banned in the future. "Rule 34: If it exists, there's porn of it." If it's CP, you won't find it on rule34.paheal.net.

The site has banned real CP (actual photographs of real children). I agree with this whole-heartedly. No child should be abused. Realistic-looking 3D renders of underage male and/or female characters who are nude or performing any sexual activity are also banned. I disagree with this, since no real children = no victim. Explicit imagery of toddlers and infants are also banned. (non-human, extremely stylized, and "chibi" drawings are exempt.)

It's a small consolation to know that "non-human" means that Rule 34 of the Cutie Mark Crusaders as fillies would still be allowed.



In addition to that, there's a possibility that all lolicon and shotacon could be deleted from rule34.paheal.net in the coming months/year. The reason why it would take so long to remove all offending images is because there's a ton of content that would potentially have to go. Why? Well, the reason is because such content is quickly becoming illegal all over the world. There are currently a handful of countries that put lolicon on the same level as CP and prosecute its possession and distribution to equal effect, and while it is debatable, because there are no real children involved and there are certain artistic merits etc; if the law says its illegal then its just illegal.

(Just to clarify, toddlercon is currently the ONLY content which will be deleted until a clear legal definition of lolicon and shotacon can be established. It's a very thin line.)

Since I first started keeping track of porn statistics, I've noticed inconsistencies with certain numbers. Sometimes this was due to an image being removed from the site at the request of the artist. In more recent instances, it's been to purge Rule34.paheal.net of toddlercon, which site admins define as "a more extreme form of lolicon, revolving around very young children and even babies."

Removing explicit images of fictional children from the site would hinder the effort to catalog trends in Rule 34. I want My Little Pony to surpass Pokemon, but I want it to be a fair fight. If lolicon ends up getting removed, MLP would lose the humanized porn of the CMC and other fillies and colts, but Pokemon could stand to lose so much more. In the third episode of the Japanese sub of Pokemon, we learn that Misty is only ten-years-old.



Misty has more explicit imagery than any other character from Pokemon. If lolicon is eventually banned, that would be a sad day for porn enthusiasts everywhere.

Banning Rule 34 of fictional children is akin to a poison dagger in the back. I want both of these gladiators at their full strength.



In closing, punish those who murder, rape and distribute CP to the fullest extent of the law. Consenting adults who are so inclined should be allowed to indulge in movie violence, ravishment fantasy and Rule 34 of fictional characters, including fictional children, without fear of harsh legal repercussions.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment. Look for the next Rule 34 update on March 10th. A big change is coming...

