Child pornography laws in

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and

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are covered by the

Protection of Children Act 1978 The Protection of Children Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that criminalized indecent photographs of children. The Act applies in England and Wales. Similar provision for Scotland is contained in the Civic Government ...

("the 1978 Act"), which made it illegal to take, make, distribute, show, or possess for the intent of showing or distributing an indecent photograph of someone under the age of 18. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison. In the context of digital media, saving an indecent image to a computer's hard drive is considered to be "making" the image, as it causes a copy to exist which did not exist before.IWF.org.uk
, Internet Watch Foundation - R v Bowden Indecency is to be interpreted by a jury, who should apply the recognised standards of propriety. The prohibition of content on the Internet that is potentially illegal under this law by British

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s is however self-regulatory, coordinated by the

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Internet Watch Foundation The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is a registered charity based in Cambridge, England. It states that its remit is "to minimise the availability of online sexual abuse content, specifically child sexual abuse images and videos hosted anywhe ...

(who has partnerships with many major ISPs in the country). The 1978 Act was extended in 1994 (by the

Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c.33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights, clamping down on unlicensed r ...

) to cover "

pseudo-photograph The Protection of Children Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that criminalized indecent photographs of children. The Act applies in England and Wales. Similar provision for Scotland is contained in the Civic Government ...

s" - images that appear to be photographs. The

Sexual Offences Act 2003 The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (c. 42) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It partly replaced the Sexual Offences Act 1956 with more specific and explicit wording. It also created several new offences such as non-consensual voyeur ...

amended the age of subjects to which the act applied from under 16 to under 18. In 2008 the Act was further extended (by the

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes significant changes in many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Nor ...

) to cover tracings, and other works derived from photographs or pseudo-photographs. In 2009 all sexual images depicting under 18s, not just those that were derived from photographs or pseudo-photographs, were criminalised by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, under which any possession of images also became a criminal offence (whereas before it was legal to possess hard copies of images so long as there was no intention to show or distribute them to others). Similar legal provisions exist in

but the 1978 Act does not extend to there. The term "indecent images of children" or "child (sexual) abuse images" are generally preferred over "child pornography" in the United Kingdom.

References

{{Pornography legality, state=collapsed Child pornography law Law of the United Kingdom Childhood in the United Kingdom

See also

References