Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017

Producing, distributing, etc. child pornography

12. The Act of 1998 is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 5:

“5. (1) Subject to subsections (3) and (4) of section 6, a person who—

(a) knowingly produces any child pornography,

(b) knowingly distributes, transmits, disseminates, prints or publishes any child pornography,

(c) knowingly imports, exports, sells or shows any child pornography,

(d) knowingly supplies or makes available any child pornography to another person,

(e) knowingly publishes, distributes, transmits or disseminates any advertisement likely to be understood as conveying that the advertiser or any other person produces, distributes, transmits, disseminates, prints, publishes, imports, exports, sells, shows, supplies or makes available any child pornography,

(f) encourages, knowingly causes or facilitates any activity mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (e), or

(g) knowingly possesses any child pornography for the purpose of distributing, transmitting, disseminating, publishing, exporting, selling or showing it,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(i) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(ii) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years or both.

(2) A person who attempts to commit an offence under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years or both.

(3) In this section ‘distributes’, ‘transmits’ or ‘disseminates’, in relation to child pornography, includes parting with possession of it to, or exposing or offering it for acquisition by, another person, and the references to ‘distributing’, ‘transmitting’ and ‘disseminating’ in that context shall be construed accordingly.”.