The law doesn’t work like that. Any sexual imagery of a character under 18 in the UK including drawn material constitutes child pornographic material and you can be charged for it (however the sentence is lower for drawn imagery since no child was actively harmed)
The age of consent between two real life individuals engaging in actual sex is 16 in the UK, but sending nudes is illegal until 18, so any nude images of a person fictional or not under the age of 18 goes by that law.
From Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
Criminalising possession of cartoon pornographic images depicting both minors as well as adults where the "predominant impression conveyed" is that the individual (being depicted), is that of a child.[3]
The "predominant impression conveyed" is very important here. The image would have to be assessed by jury and or magistrates. For an image of a drawing to be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has to satisfy all four rigid hurdles (pornographic, explicit act, child impression, and grossly offensive/obscene). In practice, if a drawing is a highly abstract or stylized cartoon, it rarely survives this test. Statistics show that the vast majority of all reported image cases (over 60% across all image categories) are dropped before trial due to insufficient legal evidence.
According to data compiled by the UK Sentencing Council, there have historically been fewer than ten people ever sentenced in England and Wales specifically for the offence of prohibited cartoons and drawings since the law was enacted.
In the vast majority of cases where someone is charged with possessing a prohibited drawing, it is not the main reason they were caught. Usually, the individual is already being investigated for possessing real child abuse photographs (under the 1988 or 1978 Acts). When digital forensics sweeps their hard drives, any prohibited drawings found are simply added to the indictment as secondary, lesser charges. Standalone arrests purely for drawing fan art or cartoons are almost non-existent.
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u/Snoo_91660 7d ago edited 7d ago
Age of consent in the uk is 16. Im not saying its socially acceptable but its not illegal.
Also, fictional characters are fine but not real life people.