This is horribly irresponsible and misleading reporting.
1 The man was already a convicted sex offender, who had served 46 months of prison for a child pornography charge from 1999.
2. In 2003, he was sentenced to an additional 12 months for violating his probation stemming from the previous incident.
3. In addition to the cartoons, he received 14 digital photographs of real children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and sent and received 20 obscene E-mails which graphically described, among other things, parents sexually molesting their own children.
additional info:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=8536
This is NOT a case of a guy getting 20 years for just looking at 20 cartoons. I'm embarrassed on behalf of ABC for running the story without fact checking it.
Thanks lwfern, whoever you are.