Ethically is one question, but the law is written such that it’s pretty narrowly covering only photograph-style visual depictions that are virtually indistinguishable from an actual child engaged in explicit conduct in the view of a reasonable person that is also lacking in any other artistic or cultural significance.
Or in short: if it looks like an actual image of actual children being actually explicit, then it’s illegal.
So long as an ordinary person would know that it’s not a real child being abused, or a real child being depicted (placing a real child’s face on a compromising photo), it’s protected, albeit extremely unpleasant, speech.
Ethically is one question, but the law is written such that it’s pretty narrowly covering only photograph-style visual depictions that are virtually indistinguishable from an actual child engaged in explicit conduct in the view of a reasonable person that is also lacking in any other artistic or cultural significance.
Or in short: if it looks like an actual image of actual children being actually explicit, then it’s illegal.
Makes sense.
So it’s all good as long as they have elf ears or that counts as realistic too?
Two things:
So long as an ordinary person would know that it’s not a real child being abused, or a real child being depicted (placing a real child’s face on a compromising photo), it’s protected, albeit extremely unpleasant, speech.