Crimes and Tickets

Child Pornography Laws

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Some child pornography laws have been adopted or made more strict in order to protect children and teens under the age of 18 (“minors”). This article explains the different crimes that deal with child pornography.

Kinds of Child Pornography

Here are some examples of the different kinds of child pornography:

  • visual representation (that is, a photo, film, video or other image) of a minor taking part in a clearly sexual activity
  • visual representation of certain parts of a minor’s body for a sexual purpose
  • encouraging, showing (for example in a photo, film, video or other image) or describing a sexual activity with a minor that is forbidden

Child pornography can be in different forms, for example, in pictures, videos, written material or sound recordings.

Possible Crimes That Deal With Child Pornography

The Criminal Code forbids activities that deal with child pornography. For example, it is forbidden to do these things:

  • make child pornography
  • print child pornography
  • publish child pornography
  • distribute child pornography
  • transmit (send) child pornography
  • make child pornography available
  • sell child pornography
  • import child pornography
  • export child pornography
  • possess (have) child pornography
  • access (look up or get hold of) child pornography
  • advertise child pornography

The law says that Internet service providers have to tell the police as soon as possible if they think someone is using their services for child pornography, for example, through Internet connections, hosting services (using Internet servers) or email. Internet service providers are the companies that sell you your internet service.

Punishment for Child Pornography

Anyone who makes, prints, publishes, makes available, sells, imports, exports or advertises child pornography, or has child pornography in order to make it public, can be sent to prison for up to 14 years. The minimum punishment is 1 year in prison.

Anyone who has, looks up or gets (accesses) child pornography can be sent to prison for up to 10 years. The minimum punishment is six month in prison.