Erotica Author Arrested in Australia: Book Daddy’s Little Toy Sparks Free Speech Debate

Lauren Tesolin-Mastrosa, an Australian author writing under the pen name “Tori Woods,” was arrested and charged with producing, possessing, and disseminating child-sexual-abuse material in her new erotica novel titled Daddy’s Little Toy, which is now unavailable on Goodreads and Amazon; police obtained copies of the book for “forensic examination.” The suspiciously juvenile book cover has the title spelled out in pastel-colored children’s building blocks, and the blurb describes the story as following romance between a “barely legal” woman and an older man. Some individuals who received advanced copies left reviews alleging that the lead male character experiences sexual attraction to the female character when she is just a toddler, and there are also graphic descriptions of a minor’s genitalia. To amp up the creepiness, the author dedicated the book to her own young children.

I haven’t read the book, nor do I want to, but I am comfortable asserting that Tesolin-Mastrosa should not be in jail, and her book would certainly qualify as protected speech under the First Amendment if this matter were being adjudicated in the United States rather than Australia. Although I do have a long list of moral objections to the book’s theme, I am a free-speech fundamentalist, and I think it is incredibly difficult to concoct a legal standard that criminalizes Daddy’s Little Toy without applying to a wide range of perfectly acceptable books. If the objection is to descriptions of a minor’s genitalia, then the government also has to censor Anne Frank’s diary, along with every book that provides guidance about puberty, like the New York Times bestseller titled The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Younger Girls by American Girl.

About the Author

Abigail Anthony

Abigail Anthony is a staff writer at National Review.

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Lauren Tesolin-Mastrosa, an Australian author writing under the pen name “Tori Woods,” was arrested and charged with producing, possessing, and disseminating child-sexual-abuse material in her new erotica novel titled Daddy’s Little Toy, which is now unavailable on Goodreads and Amazon; police obtained copies of the book for “forensic examination.” The suspiciously juvenile book cover has the title spelled out in pastel-colored children’s building blocks, and the blurb describes the story as following romance between a “barely legal” woman and an older man. Some individuals who received advanced copies left reviews alleging that the lead male character experiences sexual attraction to the female character when she is just a toddler, and there are also graphic descriptions of a minor’s genitalia. To amp up the creepiness, the author dedicated the book to her own young children.

I haven’t read the book, nor do I want to, but I am comfortable asserting that Tesolin-Mastrosa should not be in jail, and her book would certainly qualify as protected speech under the First Amendment if this matter were being adjudicated in the United States rather than Australia. Although I do have a long list of moral objections to the book’s theme, I am a free-speech fundamentalist, and I think it is incredibly difficult to concoct a legal standard that criminalizes Daddy’s Little Toy without applying to a wide range of perfectly acceptable books. If the objection is to descriptions of a minor’s genitalia, then the government also has to censor Anne Frank’s diary, along with every book that provides guidance about puberty, like the New York Times bestseller titled The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Younger Girls by American Girl.