>>39580294correct.
the law forbids explicit videographic or still photographic images of minors, to protect minors from exploitative sexual misconduct.
a cartoon is not a minor. its a stylized, symbolic representation of a, usually a hypothetical and fictional, minor.
Much like how taking a picture of a person naked without their permission is illegal on several accounts, but simply drawing them without their permission naked using publically accessible photos, nude models, and mental extrapolation for reference is, while inordinately creepy, and liable to get you a restraining order if they find out, is still legal. You haven't actually infringed on their rights, or harmed them in any way other than with the disturbing fact that weirdos like you exist. Since the loli-ed character basically never exist in real life, not even that possibility exists, a victimless, if thoroughly depraved, act.
The same general logic also applies to bestiality. You can't make recording, because to make a recording requires the event to actually happen, thus implies sexually motivated cruelty towards animals.
But you can draw yourself brutally raping your bound and gagged shih tzu, then show those drawings to your dog while it watches you fap, once a day every day for the rest of your life, and while nearly everyone alive will most certainly think less of you for it, it is protected by, at least in the states, the 1st and 10th amendments until legislation changes.
There are a lot of unspoken social rules. But few are actual Law, so as long as you don't care about social approval or the benefits thereof, they don't really carry any penalties. Kind of like how fines are really more of a pricetag than a punishment, a guy with money to burn can loiter, ignore speed limits and stopsigns, scream expletives at babies in public places, and never return library books all he wants.
