Simulated child pornography

Simulated child pornography is child pornography depicting what appear to be minors but which is produced without the direct involvement of children in the production process itself.

Types of simulated child pornography include: modified photographs of real children, non-minor teenagers made to look younger (age regression), and fully computer-generated imagery or adults made to look like children. Drawings or animations that depict sexual acts involving children but are not intended to look like photographs may also be considered by some to be simulated child pornography.

In the United States, the PROTECT Act of 2003 made significant changes to the law regarding virtual child pornography. Any realistic appearing computer generated depiction that is indistinguishable from a depiction of an actual minor in sexual situations or engaging in sexual acts is illegal under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A. Drawings, cartoons, sculptures, and paintings of minors in sexual situations that do not pass the Miller test were made illegal under 18 U.S.C. § 1466A.

In the Australian state of Victoria, it is illegal to publish imagery that "describes or depicts a person who is, or appears to be, a minor engaging in sexual activity or depicted in an indecent sexual manner or context". The allowance of virtual child pornography in the U.S. has had international consequences. For example, French virtual child pornography producers have moved their "'wares' to servers in the United States because of its wider free speech protection" (Eko).

The hentai subgenres known as lolicon and shotacon have been the subject of much controversy regarding impact on child sexual abuse. The reported link between the use of child pornography and child abuse has been used to justify the prohibition of sexual depictions of children, whether their production involves child abuse or not.

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