As Arjun Appadurai has noted, the ease of information sharing enabled by the development of new media, most prominently the internet, has resulted in the proliferation of 'communities of imagination and interest' among people who are otherwise geographically 'diasporic'. 1 Mathews, too, notes that individuals are now able to choose 'information and identities from the global supermarket' on a scale not seen before. 2 One result has been a proliferation of subcultures and an increase in diversity, what Giddens refers to as 'lifestyle sectors'. 3 Many of these communities are now truly global and involve participation from people of diverse backgrounds from many parts of the globe. However, alongside the creative and enabling effects of increased interpersonal and inter-cultural communication, there is also a dark side-an increase in criminal and harmful activity conducted online.

After English and Chinese, Japanese is the most widely represented language on the internet and yet few studies have been made of how communities in Japan engage with this new technology. This article looks at the internet both as a virtual space in which Japanese and foreign gay men can meet as well as a means for making offline assignations. The author reflects on his own use of the internet in his research on gay communities in Japan, suggesting that the internet has made it possible to reach out to and work with a wider variety of Japanese gay men than was previously possible. It is suggested that gay men's use of the internet in Japan is illustrative of Appadurai's argument that this new technology provides a unique opportunity for relationship building between individuals who are otherwise deterritorialized, diasporic and transnational.

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This article investigates the implications of Australia's prohibition of 'child-abuse material' (including cartoons, animation, drawings and text) for Australian fan communities of animation, comics and gaming (ACG) and slash fiction. It is argued that current legislation is out of synch with the new communicative environment brought about by the internet since a large portion of the fans producing and trading in these images are themselves minors and young people. Habermas's analysis of the conflict between instrumental and communicative rationality is deployed to demonstrate that legislators have misrecognized the nature of the communicative practices that take place within the 'lifeworlds' of fan communities, resulting in an unjust 'juridification' of their creative works. Drawing on Japanese research into the female fandom surrounding 'boys' love' (BL) manga, it is argued that current Australian legislation not only forecloses the fantasy lives of young Australian fans but also harms them by aligning them with paedophile networks. Finally, drawing upon Jean Cohen's paradigm of 'reflexive law' the article considers a possible way forward that opens up channels of communication between regulators, fans, domain host administrators and media studies professionals that would encourage a more nuanced approach to legislation as well as a greater awareness of the need for self-regulation among fan communities.