I will check out the documentary ASAP, but I have a few words I want to say about the situation first that preclude me simply gushing over how cute and talented Beckii is. There are bigger issues here of relevance to our community that need to be discussed, and I hope to turn this post into an essay for future submission to Newgon's wiki.

One of the major things about the Internet to keep in mind is that it's a global phenomenon. As a result, people from Country A who become overnight sensations as a result of uploading videos of themselves to sites like Youtube are sometimes going to achieve a lot of appeal not just in their own country, but also in Country B. If the latter occurs, then they are quickly going to realize that the values and attitudes of their native culture are not the equivalent of laws of nature. The moral conceits that are so popular in the U.S. and Britain which demonize adult men who openly acknowledge the sexual attractiveness of adolescent girls under a certain arbitrary age are obviously not nearly as extant in certain Eastern nations like Japan, which has a long and solid tradition of Girl Love (GL). In Japan, it's considered completely normal for middle-aged men to acknowledge the attractiveness of young adolescent girls. Beckii and her family may not like this aspect of Japanese culture, but if she chooses to immerse herself in the intricacies of a culture that made her a superstar, she needs to understand that the GL aspects of Japanese culture are a package deal and have been a central part of anime since the inception of the medium. Hopefully, upon studying the Japanese culture in greater detail and accepting friendships from the middle-aged fan boys there who adore her on all levels, she will become more open-minded and come to question what she has always incorrectly believed to be the universal nature or moral absolutism of her own Western-based culture's disdain for adult men (and women) acknowledging the attractiveness of young adolescent girls, as girls of that age group are seen as young adults in Japan rather than as older children, as is the case in many Western nations (including the U.S. and Britain). Also, it should be mentioned that true pedophilia, while still stigmatized to a degree in Japan, is nevertheless much more easily discussed there than in the Western nations.

Another thing regarding this situation that Beckii should be aware of is this: in Japan, anime and other animated features are enjoyed by people of multiple age groups, not simply children, tweens, and younger teens. The attitudes towards animated fare in Western and Eastern nations are often quite different. American and British audiences automatically view anything that is animated to be for the "kiddie ghetto," and such shows need to be made 'kid friendly' in order to thrive on U.S. or British television or on the big screen (unless those shows are sitcoms like The Simpsons or Family Guy). There are exceptions, of course (note the Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" segment), but they are rare, they are usually not as popular or widely viewed as the animated fare designed for younger audiences, and they are often attacked by parents groups who expect all such animated fare to conform to "family oriented" standards. In other words, in many Western nations (including the U.S. and Britain) the realm of animation isn't viewed as a particular medium where any subject or genre can be depicted, but instead seems to be perceived as nothing more than a genre that is automatically geared towards a specific age group. This is not the case in Japan, where animated fare is geared towards and appreciated by a multiplicity of age groups. Anime is popular among as many adults in Japan as they are younger audiences, and as such anime in its original form is often shown detailing themes that are not socially acceptable for "kiddie" fare in the U.S. and Britain. As a result, when these anime shows are imported to American and British shores, they are heavily edited and censored, with any themes that may make them "inappropriate" for younger audiences according to Western cultural standards, including anything to do with intergenerational attraction, being excised. There have been several anime series featuring young girls where one of the girls' teachers or some other adult friend had a crush on her, and the adult in question was not automatically depicted as a bad guy, because what is called the hebephiliac attraction base in the Western world is not considered deviant in Japanese culture. But these themes were thorougly extirpated from the American and British versions of the anime, which is why Beckii and other anime fans in the West wouldn't have the slightest clue that expressions of GL are relatively common and something close to mainstream in the Land of the Rising Sun. Girls who grew up in a Japanese culture wouldn't consider such themes to constitute a "moral dilemma" (at least not in a knee-jerk manner). But Beckii grew up in a Western culture, during a time period when the "pedophile panic" is still going ahead full steam, so it's no wonder that her reaction to the adult male attention she has gotten from her Japanese fan base would come off as dubious to her. I think what Beckii needs to do in the future is to get her hands on some of the unedited, Japanese versions of the anime she enjoys so much so that she can see some of these themes played out and come to the realization that the versions she sees in her native Britain are extremely whitewashed to make them more 'acceptable' to the kid audiences in the West. Many examples of anime featuring young girl protagonists display a degree of sexual appreciation for them (note the revealing outfits worn by many girl protagonists in certain anime), and it's a shame that the sanitized versions of these shows that reach American and British shores leave out these important aspects to such an extent that Western girl fans like Beckii are totally unaware that such a multi-faceted level of appreciation for these young girls she admires and identifies with aren't aware they even exist.

Another thing to wonder about is whether or not Beckii was unduly influenced in her moral dilemma by her police officer father. The police are rivaled only by mainstream media moguls (such as Oprah Winfrey and just about any talk show host) as being the absolute worst source of information about Minor Attracted Adults (MAAs) and the phenomenon of adult attraction to minors in general. The police of Western nations do not routinely have mutually amiable discussions with the large number of MAAs who are perfectly law-abiding, and as such they do not have anything remotely resembling an accurate knowledge of the typical members of this community, nor do they see us as anything other than criminals or potential criminals. To them, arresting adults who engage in mutually consensual romantic/sexual relationships with young girls (and boys) is their job, and this will inevitably color their attitude towards even the large number of people in this community who do not break the law. As such, it's to be expected that Beckii's father would have such a negative reaction to the attention his daughter is receiving from middle-aged men in Japan as a result of her stardom there, because he sees all such men as dangerous psychotics who would try to harm his daughter if given the slightest chance. This, of course, is utterly ridiculous, as the vast majority of men who are attracted to minors are decent people who would never harm a youth in any real or demonstrable manner, and the fact that violent crimes against children and adolescents are extremely rare outside of the home even in nations where the majority of adults acknowledge an attraction to minors (such as Japan) should speak volumes about the validity of this hysteria and accompanying moral caveats. The admiration towards Beckii by these men come from a culture that is not ashamed of acknowledging the great attractiveness and appeal of young girls on all levels, but considering the political and cultural climate that Beckii was raised in, it shouldn't come as any major surprise that she doesn't perceive such attention as flattering and affirming of her self-esteem but instead something to be taken aback by and concerned about. Since the hebephiliac attraction base is readily acknowledged by the great majority of men in Japan, obviously most, if not all, of these men are not psychopaths but normal and well-adjusted individuals who appreciate what Beckii offers to the world on all levels, as opposed to viewing her through the lens of Western cultural conceits, who would insist she be viewed as "just a cute kid." Instead, her adult male Japanese admirers see her in a far more multi-faceted manner, as a talented, sexy, and beautiful young woman who does the great medium of anime proud by her enthusiasm for it.

One other thing that should be mentioned here is that Beckii and her family seems totally unaware of the cam girl phenomenon of the past decade, a phenomenon that is hardly unknown and which has been the subject of many articles and at least a few television news shows (such as 60 Minutes). It's been well known for a long time now since the inception of public access to the Internet and the invention of web cams that young adolescent girls (and sometimes boys) from any number of nations, including Western nations like the U.S. and Britain, receive an enormous amount of attention from adult men by putting cam photos of themselves up on websites, and sometimes even do real time cam shows for their adoring fan base (usually kept legal, of course). These girls routinely put up wish lists on their sites where they mention all of the often expensive items they want, as they know that their many adult male fans will gladly purchase these items for them as gifts. Do these girls actually think that it's mostly adolescent boys in their age group who purchase these gifts for them, especially when these wish lists are often created on Amazon.com and most teen boys do not have credit or debit cards that would enable them to make the purchase in the first place, let alone have enough money to do so? Though a few of these cam girls complain about the "old pervs" who dare to admire them, none of them have any problem with milking their obvious sexual appeal for all its worth and receiving literally thousands of dollars worth of gifts from these smitten adult admirers every year. So while most men in contemporary Western culture are not willing to openly admit their attraction to young adolescent girls due to all of the severe societal stigma against it, they do indeed display their appreciation for these girls' great beauty and attractiveness in ways such as those mentioned above (where they can do so anonomously), so the phenomenon shouldn't have come to any great surprise to Beckii or her family. Adult attraction to young adolescent girls (as well as to children, even if in lesser numbers than hebephilia) is common, pervasive, and quite obvious despite whatever level of moralizing condemnation may or may not exist against it on any level in any given culture.

I think the friendship that Beckii has established with her biggest Japanese fan, a wealthy middle-aged man who sends her many gifts, will ultimately come to open her mind and expand her cultural horizons if she chooses to continue it. She will come to see that he is not a monster, that his admiration of her is sincere, and that the sexual components of that admiration in no way lesson or taint the emotional and social aspects of that admiration. He appreciates her on all levels, and therefore affords her a level of respect that the great majority of people over the age of 18 in her native Britain (and elsewhere in the Western world) would not give her, at least not openly.