It would in the United States; the law here criminalizes possession of cartoon depictions of child sex abuse: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1466A

It would in the United States; the law here criminalizes possession of cartoon depictions of child sex abuse: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1466A https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1466A There have been prosecutions in the past: https://www.wired.com/2010/02/obscene-us-manga-collector-jailed-6-months/ https://www.wired.com/2010/02/obscene-us-manga-collector-jai... Yes, it is controversial, as the original reasoning for banning child abuse imagery was to protect the children who are harmed by its production. This is the result of a shift in thinking: while the original idea was that we should protect children, today it is a matter of morality and pedophiles are considered morally deficient. As a result, even if a pedophile has never harmed a child, the common notion is that they are a danger to the community and that we can never be too careful.