Some cartoons or even classical writings could be illegal under Northern Territory laws outlawing child abuse material, a magistrate says.
A 24-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, attended a bail hearing on Friday accused of possessing 466 images of child abuse, about 70 per cent of them Japanese animation.
Under the NT Criminal Code, any offensive material that "depicts, describes or represents" children engaged in sex, being subjected to torture or in a demeaning context is outlawed.
Magistrate John Lowndes says it seems to him the act is broad enough to cover cartoons of child abuse, or even written material.
"Some of the classics could even be considered abusive material," Dr Lowndes said.
The bail hearing heard from prosecutor Sergeant Sally Nicholas, who said 72 of the images found on the man's computers were level five child abuse images, showing torture of children.
About 30 per cent of the abusive images found were photographs showing actual children, Sgt Nicholas said.
She said regardless of whether the images were cartoons or photographs, they still met the definition of child abuse material.
Lawyer Shane McMaster, representing the accused man, said it was possible the images were saved on to his client's computer by another person.
Mr McMaster also said it was possible the items were inadvertently saved on to the computer by somebody clicking on an innocent picture that redirected to other material.
However, Dr Lowndes said there was evidence the images were found on the computer owned by the accused man and that the man had downloaded them and saved them to folders.
"I would have thought that circumstantial evidence cases don't get much stronger than that," he said.
Dr Lowndes said the actions appeared out of character for the defendant.
He adjourned proceedings until 2pm (CST), when he will rule on whether to grant the accused man bail.
