My apologies dear readers for being so late. I have just been so exhausted the past few days but now I have a moment to cover a few items. And apropos to the work needed to run this site …
The Pigtails Job Fair: I have been thinking about this for a while. With all the contributions of readers and well-wishers, I have felt for a long time that this site needs to be a community project with a watchful editor to uphold our high standards and keep us out of legal trouble. There are many ways readers can volunteer their time so that interesting items can be shepherded to final publication. This month I will be establishing a job page that will give readers a more specific idea on our needs so that we can increase publication rates. Believe me when I say that we have a huge backlog of items that just need a little attention to complete. Therefore I expect to announce this dedicated job page in next month’s ‘Maiden Voyages’.
About Photo-Lolicon Collections: I understand readers’ enthusiasm about getting access to the more rare images produced during the Photo-Lolicon era which, due to legal concerns, are no longer generally available on the open secondary market. For those of you interested in purchasing or trading in hard-copy titles, I will endeavor to figure out a way to put you in touch with others who wish to sell or trade or know of the lesser-known secondary markets that occasionally sell these items. Be advised that Pigtails in Paint is not in the book business but as a favor to some of our readers, I can try to do some match-making so that you can build or liquidate your collection with other trusted collectors. In pursuit of this, I will be establishing a member-only page with artists (many already listed on the ‘Artists by Name’ page) along with pictures of the covers of their known publications so you know what has been produced out there. Obviously we will be depending on readers to inform us of anything we missed. Many of these items have been scanned over the years and have been made available to the public in the form of torrents and other peer-sharing applications. Unfortunately, these get shut down form time to time and there is no consistency about where to find works from a particular artist or what even exists out there. Also, as I have told many readers, Pigtails cannot ethically engage in this image sharing directly because it might expose us to too much legal risk. Not all materials have been vetted as to whether they represent legitimate girl-idol material or if they might be regarded as pornography in many nation states. With respect to this, I would be happy to entertain ideas on how these digital collections might be safely archived and appropriately distributed to interested parties. I remind readers that because Pigtails is a journalistic forum, it is safe to share items of interest with us so long as the items are not illegal material. I will inform you when a Photo-Lolicon publication page has been established so members can peruse and educate themselves on the scope of this genre.
Mysterious AI Community: With the advent of Large Data Models, generative AI images have started to become available to the general public. This has obviously led to an explosion of experimentation, including effort to “trick” (jailbreak) the application into producing images that are banned such as triggering violent scenes and most forms of nudity. I tried featuring some on this site, but it is just too much. A reader has come forward about a place where producers of AI images of little girls can congregate making it easier for the public to keep up on what is out there. The person who runs these mysterious communities goes by the handle Bericbone. His main site includes links to all his social media and the communities he started. They utilize a novel new decentralized social network called “Session”. The largest AI one he started has over 1200 active users. Berichone is apparently a huge supporter of freedom of speech and tasteful art featuring little girls.
> “Bericbone is apparently a huge supporter of freedom of speech and tasteful art featuring little girls.”
Hardly. Intrigued by these mentions of Bericbone, I did some web sleuthing and it appears to me that he’s just trying to cash in on AI’s ability to create photorealistic CSAM and skirt legal boundaries. Yes, some of his images are ‘kawaii’ (cute) but many are just porn, the sort that make you want to clean your computer (and your mind) of the memory. I see that the Bericbone link above no longer works; a good thing.
While I remain a fan of AI generated photorealistic images (I hesitate to call it art), using this new technology to produce CP is discouraging and has resulted in the banning of even SFW child portraits like Ada’s Angels ( https://pigtailsinpaint.org/2023/05/maiden-voyages-may-2023 ) on most of the venues I like to view and share art. Even ATF (where Bericbone has been banned, btw) has such strict policies in place.
So, I continue to collect especially beautiful and realistic SFW portrayals of children created via AI and I continue to wonder why such images are frowned upon. What does it matter whether an image was created with a pen, paintbrush, or software? Generative artificial intelligence creates exquisite, original images that have never been seen before of subjects that do not even exist in the real world. What is the harm in that? Is there something I’m not seeing about this issue? Is it just that, as illustrated by Mr. Bericbone, that this technology can be exploited toward nefarious ends? Well, so can a camera!
And here come the new laws:
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20231112-149161/
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20231114-149312/
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20231114-149299/
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3241843/realistic-ai-generated-child-porn-japan-sparks-debate-legal-loophole-and-kawaii-culture (use 12ft.io to view)
I really appreciate it when readers take the trouble to check out these things online. Thank you, -Ron
“What does it matter whether an image was created with a pen, paintbrush, or software”
Good question, in general and in particular to this site. I think back to the old joke about Playboy magazine, where someone protests that they just buy it for the articles and not the pictures.
I like the background that the authors here give to the pictures in the articles, information on both the photographer, painter, sculptor etc and their subject. I can’t put my finger on it, but it adds a certain something knowing what went into the art to make it happen.
I appreciate abstract art too, but it has it’s place and just speaking personally, trying to mix the real and the abstract doesn’t do the human body justice.
In response to Erogal, after reading his pending post:
What country was that police raid in?
BericBone / Meta’s home has been raided by the police. I know he hasn’t done anything illegal or even unethical, but this is a classic case of authorities using legal threats to silence speech they don’t like. Disgusting
Perhaps things like Element, Signal & Session especially the last two due to allowing for anyone to communicate privately is in of itself a magnet for authorities due to their (current) inability to easily bypass that privacy, even if all you are doing is communicating in a private way or you’re just tired of opening your gmail and seeing constant ads and wish to be freer.
This should be yet another important reminder (even for myself who made this mistake recently on here) that although the lines drawn by society are often arbitrary, nonsensical, hypocritical and sometimes quite confusing, we need to follow them clearly so as not to give authorities (or ne’er-do-wells) any reasons, especially any reasons to shut down sites or blogs without cause.
Hopefully, the Bericbone person is able to come out of whatever situation occurred, unscathed.
Very glad to read that this Bericbone person is sticking to tasteful art. Obviously the subject matter is the focus but we can hope that the love of art itself is the secondary focus!
I was quite surprised to see discord in bericbone’s list considering discord is very insecure & quite chinese-controlled, i would have thought that element/matrix would have been used. I’ve not heard of session, and out of my fiance and I, He’s the avid and talented cook & i am an artist but i will stick to my brushes and charcoal long after everyone has fully moved to AI haha! but if that works, well that is good!
> My apologies dear readers for being so late. I have just been so exhausted the past few days but now I have a moment to cover a few items. And apropos to the work needed to run this site …
we do greatly appreciate your efforts and the efforts of other publishers here. Good things take time and yes many hands can make light work but quality (hands) over quantity of course!
I’m not going to sign up to that AI site, aside from expecting it to inevitably start hosting unpleasant stuff, art and AI will never sit well together for me.