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re: stopping the sale of sexualised merch of underage characters at 'geddon -- how come we seem to be fixating on character age (which is MUCH harder to keep track of and police) when the real issue is ANY overtly sexual merch on full display at a family event? Some thoughts:
- I would say: some things, like ahegao print, are "obviously" adult and obscene imo, but other things, like body pillows, simply show a clothed character lying down (regardless of age). It's too easy to argue that the latter isn't inherently sexual--even if we all know it is.
- How do you differentiate, policy wise, between a character who is under 18 but looks like an adult, and a character who is over 18 but (for whatever bullshit anime reason) has a childlike body? There is no simple way to keep track of this and vendors could easily contest it.
- Who decides what is sexualised or not? Do vendors self report, or do con staff have to make this call? On what objective criteria can you judge this (ie. what constitutes a sexual pose, how much nudity is acceptable etc.) to avoid disputes from vendors and congoers alike?
- The only way to do so is for con staff to be familiar with character ages from ALL fandoms with merch being sold at the event (or to dedicate time to researching them). It's more likely they will either a) just guess or b) take vendor's word for it--it's not feasible.
- So. How to fix it? In my opinion, NO 18+ merch, regardless of character age, should be sold on the main con floor at a family event--and it would not be hard to impose a blanket ban on, say, body pillows as they have on ahegao prints (even if they suck at enforcing it).
- OR: some overseas cons have dedicated 18+ areas where adult merch can be sold, but you can't enter without ID. I think this would be a much more enforceable solution for geddon to pursue; but, in this case, it would still be hard to address issues regarding character age.
I don't really have the answer to this issue--but I just think you would have a hard time getting rid of only Some horny merch, without creating policies that would subsequently affect All horny merch. So the question is really whether horny merch belongs at geddon at all. 
