In Canada, under section 163.1 of the Criminal Code, it is a criminal offence to access, have, distribute, or make child porn.
Child porn consists of representations of children under 18 engaged in sexual acts in videos, photographs, written material, audio recordings, and illustrations. The Criminal Code outlines that it can also be material that advocates or elicits sexual activity with a child under 18 years.
According to the Criminal Code, any kind of visual representation of a person under the age of 18 taking part in sex is child pornography or any depiction of a child under the age of 18 years old where the leading feature is the representation of the genital area or bust for a sexual objective.
According to the law, simple nudity does not immediately count as child pornography. However, written or audio content where the leading theme encourages or represents sexual activity with a person under 18 could be considered criminal under this section.
What are the types of child pornography offences?
As detailed in the Criminal Code, there are four possible charges connected to child porn:
Accessing child porn
Accessing child pornography indicates that you are purposefully creating child porn to be seen or sent to on your own. According to section 163.1(4.1) of the Code, accessing child porn involves knowingly creating child porn to be checked out or transmitted to yourself. This offence was particularly produced to catch those not in possession of child pornography; however, they still seek to find it for themselves on the web.
Possession of child pornography
This offence requires that you have the child porn materials in your ownership and control. You don’t have to see child pornography; it suffices that you have the products in your possession and know of them.
To be found guilty of having child pornography, the Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you had understanding and control of the content that consists of child pornography. According to section 163.1(4), You can be condemned to possessing porn if you have it in your individual belongings or purposefully put it in the belongings of another person or location for the use or advantage of yourself or an additional individual or group of people.
Distribution
It is a criminal offence to send, offer, distribute, offer, advertise, import, export, or possess for transmission, offering, circulation, sale, advertising, and marketing or exporting any child porn.
This consists of assisting someone else to gain access to child pornography, whether it be via sending them a link online or by offering them child porn content directly. Every person who transfers, makes available, disperses, offers, markets, imports, exports, or possesses child porn for the objective of doing any one of these things can be convicted of distributing child pornography.
Making
It is a criminal offence to make, copy, distribute or have for the function of manufacturing any child porn. This includes taking photos, making videos, or visual representations. More information can be found about this in section 163.1(2)
Penalties if found guilty
As a result of its delicate nature, child pornography offences carry required minimal prison terms. For possession and accessing child porn, the Crown chooses whether to proceed by indictment or summary conviction.
If proceeding by summary conviction, you will certainly encounter a minimum sentence of 6 months and a maximum sentence of 2 years.
If continuing by way of indictment, you will face a minimum sentence of one year and an optimal sentence of 10 years.
For making and distributing child pornography, the Crown needs to proceed by indictment. You will undoubtedly encounter a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum of 14 years behind bars.
Some aspects that will likely raise the prison sentence:
- Having a large amount of child pornography.
- The children shown in the material are extremely young.
- There is a history of child pornography.
- There was a high level of participation in the manufacturing of child pornography.
- The child was abused.
- There was an intended benefit from the content.
Along with these jail terms, there are also specific orders that accompany a child porn charge, such as an order to surrender any kind of home related to the offence and an order to limit your ability to visit areas where you have a high probability of engaging with underage people.
If you have been convicted of anything child porn-related, you will likewise obtain an order to register with The National Sex Offender Registry. As a sex offender, you will need to give the police your individual information, including where you live, what you drive, and what you do for work.
You will certainly also be obliged to inform the authorities any time you move, change employment, volunteer placements, or travel globally for greater than seven days.
There might also be issues with the Children’s Aid Society if you have children. A child pornography defence lawyer is the most effective way to protect yourself from the possible consequences and functional limitations that come with being convicted of a child pornography case.
How do I fight the child porn charges?
There are numerous defences readily available to an individual billed under section 163 of the Criminal Code.
According to section 163.1(6a) and section 163.1(6b), there are some very minimal exceptions where a person is legitimately allowed to possess child photos that would or else be prohibited in a limited number of situations.
Legitimate purpose exemption: a person is not responsible for this offence when they have a reputable function about the administration of justice, scientific research, medicine, education, and learning or art and also does not trigger damage to the person under 18 years of age.
Hiring a child pornography lawyer gives you the best chance at having a good defence for your case. If you are looking for a Toronto child pornography lawyer, contact our team of knowledgeable child porn lawyers for more information on how to protect your rights.
