Legal status of fictional pornography depicting minors

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Legal frameworks around fictional pornography depicting minors vary depending on country and nature of the material involved. Laws against production, distribution and consumption of child pornography generally separate images into three categories: real, pseudo, and virtual. Pseudo-photographic child pornography is produced by digitally manipulating non-sexual images of real minors to make pornographic material. Virtual child pornography depicts purely fictional characters (for example, lolicon manga). "Fictional pornography depicting minors", as covered in this article, includes these latter two categories, whose legalities vary by jurisdiction, and often differ with each other and with the legality of real child pornography.

Some analysts have argued whether or not cartoon pornography that depicts minors is a victimless crime.^[1][2] Laws have been enacted to criminalize "obscene images of children, no matter how they are made", typically under the belief that such materials may incite real-world instances of child sex abuse. Currently, countries that have made it illegal to possess (as well as create and distribute) sexual images of fictional characters who are described as or appear to be below eighteen include New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.^{[3][original research]} The countries listed below exclude those that ban any form of pornography, and assume a ban on real child pornography by default.