Lolicon

Lolicon (ロリコン), is a slang word for the phrase "Lolita complex". In Japan, the word refers to a desire for young girls or drawings of young-looking girls. Outside Japan, the word is less common. It is used to refer to erotic artwork showing young-looking female characters. The word comes from Vladimir Nabokov's book, Lolita. In the book, a middle-aged man sexually desires a 12-year-old girl, however to use this origin as the current meaning is not ideal as the word has changed its meaning through time.

Some people claim that lolicon adds to actual sexual abuse of children, while others claim that there are no facts that show this, or that facts show the opposite. Some places have tried to make lolicon works showing children naked or having sex illegal, as a type of child pornography.

One of the few that has made it actually illegal is the United Kingdom where the possession of lolicon pornography is illegal. These laws have been criticised heavily, and charges of lolicon child porn tend not to stick, because a judge reasons that no real children were harmed to make it and possess it and therefore it is not worth conviction, or because the harm that will be caused by giving the person a jail sentence is considered disproportionate to their charges.

In June 2007, Jimmy Wales deleted several lolicon images of Wikipe-tan saying they were "pedophilic sexualization of a community mascot." The images were later restored in 2025, because Wales deleted them without discussing with the community first.

The boy version is called Shotacon.

Notes

1. ↑ Mead, Rebecca (2002-03-18). "Shopping rebellion; what the kids want. (Letter from Tokyo)". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
2. ↑ "ロリコン" (in Japanese). SPACE ALC. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
3. ↑ Kinsella, 305.
4. ↑ Graphic Artists Condemn Plans to Ban Erotic Comics. The Independant
5. ↑ Paedophile avoids jail after making animated child porn . Leeds Live
6. ↑ Trans-woman freed after being sentenced on bogus child porn charges . Sky News
7. ↑ Finkelstein, Seth (17 December 2008). "Sting in the Scorpions tale is the exposure of Wiki's weakness". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
8. ↑ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Undeletion_requests/Archive/2025-11#File:LoliWikipetan.jpg_and_File:LoliWikipetan2.jpg

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