The assessment of the biological age of children`s characters created in the convention of Japanese animation in forensic practice

Agata Bisiecka; Krzysztof Brysławski

doi:10.18778/1898-6773.85.2.06

Authors

Agata Bisiecka Division of Anthropology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wrocław, Poland
Krzysztof Brysławski Institute of Health, Angelus Silesius State University, Wałbrzych, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1898-6773.85.2.06

Keywords:

anime, anthropology, child pornography, face, lolicon, measurement

Abstract

Introduction: According to criminal codes of most Western countries, possessing, producing and disseminating of fictional paedopornography is a crime. In light of these laws, the shotacon/lolicon (popular and widely available Japanese animations or comic books showing minors in a sexual context) seems to deserve special mention. There have been several convictions for violations of these laws, however, the methodology of a depicted person’s age estimation is still unestablished.

The aim of this study was to assess the suitability of anthropometrical prediction of age to the analysis of characters animated in the Japanese style.

Material and methods: The metric (distance between facial landmarks) and non-metric (type of chin shape) features of 173 animated characters’ faces were obtained. Material was collected from 90 most popular Japanese anime series. Measurements were conducted in ImageJ software. The correlations of age and standardized measurements: en-ex, en-en, eye height, pu-prn, pu-sto, pu-gn were examined. The chin shape was described by three independent ‘judges’.

Results and conclusions: Correlations for pu-prn, pu-sto, pu-gn and eye height in females and in all males were statistically significant. Age prediction was made using linear regression equations. Good prediction (± 1 year) was obtained for 44% males and 17% females. Prediction within the acceptable range (± 2 years) was achieved for 23% of males and 18% of females. In total, the prediction with an error of no more than ± 2 years was obtained for 67% of males and 35% from females, which is comparable to the results obtained in the study of real children. Moreover, triangular or rounded chin shape was significantly more frequent in boys aged 10–12 years, and square in older boys 16–18 years. Current research provides a basis for developing a methodology for assessing the age of animated characters. There is a need for further research in this area.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Arunrangsiwed P. 2015. Equality, friendship and violence in flash or yaoi fan art. IJHSS 9(12):4143–47.
View in Google Scholar

Bednarek J. 2006. Problemy dotyczące oceny wieku chronologicznego dzieci wykorzystywanych do produkcji materiałów pornograficznych. Arch Med Sąd Krym 56:149–54.
View in Google Scholar

Borges DL, Vidal FB, Flores MR, Melani RH, Guimaraes MA, Machado CE. 2018. Photoanthropometric face iridial proportions for age estimation: an investigation using features selected via Joint Mutual Information criterion. Forensic Sci Int 284:9–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.12.011
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.12.011

Burdzik T. 2014. Hentai – erotyka z mangi i anime, Kultura i Edukacja 103:340–53. https://doi.org/10.15804/kie.2014.03.17
View in Google Scholar

Cattaneo C, Obertova Z, Ratnayake M, Maraciuolo L, Tutkuviene J, Popua P et al. 2011. Can facial proportions taken from images be of use for ageing in cases of suspected child pornography? A pilot study. Int J Legal Med 126:139–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-011-0564-7
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-011-0564-7

Cattaneo C, Ritz-Timme S, Gabriel P, Gibelli D, Giudici E, Popua P et al. 2009. The difficult issue of age assessment on pedo-pornographic material. Forensic Sci Int 183:21–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2008.09.005
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2008.09.005

Chatterjee BB. 2020. Child sex dolls and robots: challenging the boundaries of the child protection framework. Int Rev Law Comput. Technol. 34(1):22–43.
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2019.1600870

Cunha E, Baccino E, Martrille L, Ramsthaler F, Prieto J, Schuliar Y et al. 2019. The problem of aging human remains and living individuals: a review. Forensic Sci Int. 193:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.09.008
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.09.008

Dayal R, Kalokhe AS, Choudhy V, Pillai D, Beier K, Patel V. 2018. Ethical and definitional considerations in research on child sexual violence in India. BMC Public Health. 18:1144. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6036-y
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6036-y

Deitos AR, Lima LNC, Santos TPM, Franco A, de Barros Vidal F, Daruge E Jr, Francesquini L Jr, Machado CEP. 2006. Age assessment by using facial photo-anthropometry in a Brazilian population. Forensic Sci Int Rep 2:100131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsir.2020.100131
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsir.2020.100131

Ferguson E, Wilkinson C. 2017. Juvenile age estimation from facial images. Sci Justice 57(1):58–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2016.08.005
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2016.08.005

Franklin D, Flavel A, Noble J, Swift L, Karkhanis S. 2015. Forensic age estimation in living individuals: methodological considerations in the context of medico-legal practice. Res Rep Forensic Med Sci 5:53–66. https://doi.org/10.2147/RRFMS.S75140
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/RRFMS.S75140

Hinton PR. 2014. The cultural context and interpretation of Japanese ‘Lolita complex’ style anime. ICS 23(2):54–68.
View in Google Scholar

Hodges-Simeon CR, Hanson Sobraske KN, Samore T, Gurven M, Gaulin SJC. 2016. Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is not associated with adolescent testosterone levels. PLoS ONE 11:e0153083. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153083
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153083

Holloway NT. 2020. Hadeel Al-Alosi: The Criminalisation of Fantasy Material: Law and Sexually Explicit Representations of Fictional Children. J. Youth Adolesc. 50:202–4.
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01334-7

Iga R, Izumi K, Hayashi H, Fukano G, Ohtani T. 2003. A Gender and Age Estimation System from Face Images. SICE Annual Conference, conference materials, IEEE publisher, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1323470
View in Google Scholar

Koruga P, Bača M, Ševa J. 2011. Application of Modified Anthropometric Model in Facial Age Estimation. Proceedings ELMAR, conference materials, IEEE publisher, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6044339
View in Google Scholar

Liu X, Zou Y, Kuang H, Ma X. Face Image Age Estimation Based on Data Augmentation and Lightweight Convolutional Neural Network. Symmetry 12:146. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12010146
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12010146

Łabęcka M, Lorkiewicz-Muszyńska D, Jarząbek-Bielecka G. 2011. Problemy oceny wieku osób małoletnich w sprawach dotyczących ich wykorzystania w pornografii dziecięcej. Arch. Med Sąd Krym 61:115–38.
View in Google Scholar

Martin R, Saller K. 1957. Lehrbuch der Anthropologie. Fisher Verlag. Stuttgart.
View in Google Scholar

Mayer F, Arent T, Geserick G, Grundmann C, Lockemann U, Riepert T et al. 2014. Age estimation based on pictures and videos presumably showing child or youth pornography. Int. J. Legal Med. 128:649–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-014-1088-8
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-014-1012-2

Palumbo R, Adams RB Jr, Hess U, Kleck RE and Zebrowitz L. 2017. Age and Gender Differences in Facial Attractiveness, but Not Emotion Resemblance, Contribute to Age and Gender Stereotypes. Front. Psychol. 8:1704. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01704
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01704

Porto LF, Lima LNC, Franco A, Pianto D, Machado CEP, de Barros Vidal F. 2020. Estimating sex and age from a face: a forensic approach using machine learning based on photo-anthropometric indexes of the Brazilian population. Int J Legal Med 134:2239–2259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02346-5
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02346-5

Ramanathan N, Chellappa R. 2006. Modelling age progression in young faces. CVPR Conference, conference materials, IEEE publisher, https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPR.2006.187 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1640784
View in Google Scholar

Ratnayake M, Obertova Z, Dose M, Gabriel P, Bröker HM, Brauckmann M et al. 2013. The juvenile face as a suitable age indicator in child pornography cases: a pilot study on the reliability of automated and visual estimation approaches. Int J Legal Med 128(5):803–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-013-0875-y
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-013-0875-y

Romano A. A man’s manga collection got him convicted on child porn charges. [web article] Daily Dot. Available through: https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/uk-manga-fan-convicted-for-loli-possession [Accessed 28 January 2022].
View in Google Scholar

Savage S. 2015. Just looking: tantalization, lolicon and virtual girls. VCG 10:37–45.
View in Google Scholar

Sayegh F, Ludwig DC, Ascha M, Vyas K, Shakir A, Kwong JW et al. 2019. Facial Masculinization Surgery and its Role in the Treatment of Gender Dysphoria. J Craniofac Surg 30(5):1339–46. https://doi.org/10.1097/SCS.0000000000005101
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/SCS.0000000000005101

Schmeling A, Dettmeyer R, Rudolf E, Vieth V, Geserick G. 2016. Forensic age estimation – methods, certainly, and the law. Dtsch Ärztebl Int 113:44–50. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2016.0044
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2016.0044

The Sydney Morning Herald. 2008. Simpsons cartoon rip-off is child porn: judge. [web article] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available through: https://www.smh.com.au/national/simpsons-cartoon-ripoff-is-child-porn-judge-20081208-6tmk.html [Accessed 28 January 2022].
View in Google Scholar

Thompson J. 2011. American Faces Minimum 1 Year in Prison for Bringing Manga to Canada On His Laptop. [web article] Kotaku.com. Available through: https://web.archive.org/web/20110626152732/http://kotaku.com/5815335/american-faces-minimum-1-year-in-prison-for-bringing-manga-to-canada-on-his-laptop [Accessed 28 January 2022].
View in Google Scholar

Vitorino P, Avila S, Perez M, Rocha A. 2018. Leveraging deep neural networks to fight child pornography in the age of social media. J. Vis. Commun. Image Represent. 50:303–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvcir.2017.12.005
View in Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvcir.2017.12.005