Lolicon/Sandbox

Pedophiles are bad, right? There are few things you'll get more agreement on than that, especially when they're open about it. But sometimes the damaging nature of pedophilia is glossed over and played for laughs or as being harmless, thus resulting in the trope known as Lolicon.

Put simply, a lolicon is a pedophile. But instead of the usual villainous or disgusting attitude normally attributed to one, they are instead treated as being a little creepy, but ultimately harmless. Instead of being played to repulse the audience, a lolicon is normally a humorous figure. Because of Western media views, you are highly unlikely to see a Lolicon outside of Japan derived works such as Anime, Visual Novels or Video Games.

For origins of the term Lolicon, please see Lolicon, which also covers the Lolicon industry. Note: Despite this being largely a Japanese trope, it does not actually signify that the Japanese are more approving of pedophilia. On the contrary, the Japanese are just as disapproving as Western countries. Thus, calling yourself a lolicon in real life would be a bad idea if you were visiting Japan, as in normal conversation it does simply mean pedophile. Adding on to that, not all pedophiles in a Japanese work are lolicons. If they are actually taken seriously and as having something that is genuinely wrong with them, they are at best a subversion of Lolicon.

Compare with Shotacon. Contrast with Evil Pedophile. The whole thing may be the result of an accidentally compromising situation, making this Mistaken for Pedophile instead.