Porn | Dead Or Alive: Dimensions - Where Are The Children?

The Australian mainstream media are controversy-stirring bigots who tend discredit anything – or anyone – that breathes. That statement is nothing new, but recent accusations that a Nintendo 3DS title, Dead or Alive: Dimensions, contains ‘child porn. has us asking the question; Where exactly are the children in the game?

Yesterday, Fairfax Media started a firestorm when they accused Dead or Alive: Dimensions of being a "child porn game". Writer Asher Moses posted on several outlet sites that the game contains three characters that are described as being under 18;

Three of the game's characters – Ayane, Koroke[sic] and Kasumi – are described in the game as being under 18 years of age.

The in-game photography mode, which allows players to look up characters' dresses in certain poses, has been considered by some as potential child pornography as laws prohibit sexualised depictions of children even in cartoons.

We assume the mythical "Koroke" character is, in fact, Kokoro – but that's beside the point. As more Australian media outlets post damning reports of the game, we decided to actually boot up the title on the Nintendo 3DS and we found something interesting. None of the characters mentioned in the article are actually described as being under 18. These three images were taken off screen.

As you can see, none of the characters mentioned in the article have an age in the game. There is also no mention of ages of any characters in the game's instruction manual. So we ask again – how can there be child porn if there are no children? As you can see (or maybe not with my bad photography skills) there's no way one can determine the age of any of those characters.

We were also concerned about some misinformation circulating the internet in regards to the game's status in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. News Limited website News.com.au's Alex Dickinson stated that the game had been "taken off shelves in Europe";

The Federal Government has launched an investigation into Dead or Alive: Dimensions, which went on sale in Australia last week. It has already been taken off shelves in Europe for possibly breaking child pornography laws.

But was it actually taken off shelves? The answer, of course, is no. In a last minute decision, Nintendo cancelled the release of Dead or Alive: Dimensions in Sweden, Denmark and Norway – meaning it was never put on those shelves in the first place. Furthermore, since it was apparently Nintendo's decision, it remains a fact that the game wasn't "banned" anywhere – it was simply never released in those countries on the date they had originally intended.

Nintendo did not give any particular reason for the decision either way so it seems strange that the registered media would make vast accusations by attempting to connect the dots – dots which, some can argue, do not exist.

In conclusion, we have found no evidence of child porn. No evidence that the game has been, or should be, banned in any country. We've found no evidence that any game in the Dead or Alive franchise has been accused of containing child porn despite many of the games containing the exact same characters and, in some cases (Xtreme Beach Volley Ball) in even more "sexy" attire.

So – why now? Why Dimensions and why Nintendo 3DS? Is it a product of the media's "guilty until someone bothers to prove innocent" tendencies? Probably. But since the misinformed have managed to, according to the News Limited article, escalate the "problem" to the Minister for Home Affairs who has asked for an investigation into the content of the game, we urge Australian gamers to go out and buy the title now before the stupid, broken system takes out another extremely high quality title.