Child pornography laws in the Netherlands

Last updated

In the Netherlands, child pornography is illegal, making it one of the 103 out of 193 UN member states where it is illegal.

Contents

Dutch law referring to child pornography

According to the Wetboek van Strafrecht:

In the Netherlands, the definition of child pornography is "a visual display of a sexual nature, or with an unmistakable sexual scope in which a person who seemingly has not yet reached the age of eighteen years old. [1]

Chick-arrest

In 1970, the publication of sex magazine Chick resulted in the Dutch "Chick-arrest" by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, which in turn led to the new Dutch moral law of 1971 that no longer criminally sanctioned pornography. [3] As a result, child pornography also became effectively legal and Joop Wilhelmus started publishing child pornography magazine Lolita . [4] [5] [6] [7]

1984 police raids

In 1984, a major police raid against child pornography occurred in the Netherlands. During the late 1970s, there had been media reports about the illicit trade, but there were few if any criminal investigations on the topic. [8]

2002 legislation

On October 1, 2002, the Netherlands introduced legislation ( Bulletin of Acts and Decrees 470) which deemed "virtual child pornography" as illegal. [9] An attempt to test the law came in 2007, when the public prosecutor opened investigations into Second Life (the US based virtual world). [10] A number of Second Life users engage in sexual ageplay where their online avatars dress, act and look like underage children while engaging in virtual sexual acts. Although there is no Dutch law that legislates against under age depictions of sexual acts for computer generated images, the public prosecutor is investigating this on the basis that these virtual actions may incite child abuse in the real world. [11] So far this has not led to any successful prosecutions.

Significant rise in illegal websites

Press reports in 2008 described a large rise in the number of child pornography websites hosted in the Netherlands, increasing from 100 reports of sites in 2006 to 700 in 2007. [12]

In 2020, the European Commission reported that in 2019, the Netherlands hosted 71% of the child porn detected in Europe by the Internet Watch Foundation, an increase from 47% in 2018. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Definitions and restrictions on pornography vary across jurisdictions. The production, distribution, and possession of pornographic films, photographs, and similar material are activities that are legal in many but not all countries, providing that any specific people featured in the material have consented to being included and are above a certain age. Various other restrictions often apply as well. The minimum age requirement for performers is most typically 18 years.

Rape pornography is a subgenre of pornography involving the description or depiction of rape. Such pornography either involves simulated rape, wherein sexually consenting adults feign rape, or it involves actual rape. Victims of actual rape may be coerced to feign consent such that the pornography produced deceptively appears as simulated rape or non-rape pornography. The depiction of rape in non-pornographic media is not considered rape pornography. Simulated scenes of rape and other forms of sexual violence have appeared in mainstream cinema, including rape and revenge films, almost since its advent.

Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with a vulnerable person – generally a minor under the age of consent – and sometimes the victim's family, to lower their inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. It can occur in various settings, including online, in person, and through other means of communication. Children who are groomed may experience mental health issues, including "anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts."

Pornography has been dominated by a few pan-European producers and distributors, the most notable of which is the Private Media Group that successfully claimed the position previously held by Color Climax Corporation in the early 1990s. Most European countries also have local pornography producers, from Portugal to Serbia, who face varying levels of competition with international producers. The legal status of pornography varies widely in Europe; its production and distribution are illegal in countries such as Ukraine, Belarus and Bulgaria, while Hungary has liberal pornography laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in the Netherlands</span>

Human rights are codified in the Dutch constitution. Together with other European states, the Netherlands is often at or near the head in international civil liberties and political rights rankings. Per year there are about 6,000 victims of and 100 convictions for human trafficking. Despite this, the Netherlands is considered to have one of the best human rights records in the world.

Legal frameworks around fictional pornography depicting minors vary depending on country and nature of the material involved. Laws against production, distribution, and consumption of child pornography generally separate images into three categories: real, pseudo, and virtual. Pseudo-photographic child pornography is produced by digitally manipulating non-sexual images of real minors to make pornographic material. Virtual child pornography depicts purely fictional characters. "Fictional pornography depicting minors," as covered in this article, includes these latter two categories, whose legalities vary by jurisdiction, and often differ with each other and with the legality of real child pornography.

Internet pornography is any pornography that is accessible over the Internet; primarily via websites, FTP connections, peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups. The greater accessibility of the World Wide Web from the late 1990s led to an incremental growth of Internet pornography, the use of which among adolescents and adults has since become increasingly popular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child pornography laws in the United States</span>

In the United States, child pornography is illegal under federal law and in all states and is punishable by up to life imprisonment and fines of up to $250,000. U.S. laws regarding child pornography are virtually always enforced and amongst the sternest in the world. The Supreme Court of the United States has found child pornography to be outside the protections of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Federal sentencing guidelines on child pornography differentiate between production, distribution, and purchasing/receiving, and also include variations in severity based on the age of the child involved in the materials, with significant increases in penalties when the offense involves a prepubescent child or a child under the age of 18. U.S. law distinguishes between pornographic images of an actual minor, realistic images that are not of an actual minor, and non-realistic images such as drawings. The latter two categories are legally protected unless found to be obscene, whereas the first does not require a finding of obscenity.

Simulated child pornography is child pornography depicting what appear to be minors but which is produced without their direct involvement.

Section 163.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada forbids the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography, which are punishable by a maximum of ten or fourteen years of imprisonment depending on the offense. Portions of the law concerning one-year mandatory minimums for possession and making of child pornography have since been struck down as unconstitutional.

The production, sale, distribution, and commercialization of child pornography in Japan is illegal under the Act on Punishment of Activities Relating to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the Protection of Children (1999), and is punishable by a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a fine of ¥5,000,000. Simple possession of child pornography was made illegal by an amendment to the act in 2014. Virtual child pornography, which depicts wholly-fictional characters, is legal to produce and possess.

The Australian law prohibits all sexual depictions of children under an age set by state and territory legislation. The relevant ages are under 16 in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, under 17 in South Australia, and under 18 in the other jurisdictions and under federal law. The laws covering child pornography are differently defined in the various Australian jurisdictions, as are the penalties. The laws also cover depictions of sexual acts involving people over the threshold age who are simulating or otherwise alluding to being underage, even if all those involved are of a legal age. People have been successfully prosecuted after describing acts of abuse via MMS.

Child pornography is illegal in most countries, but there is substantial variation in definitions, categories, penalties, and interpretations of laws. Differences include the definition of "child" under the laws, which can vary with the age of sexual consent; the definition of "child pornography" itself, for example on the basis of medium or degree of reality; and which actions are criminal. Laws surrounding fictional child pornography are a major source of variation between jurisdictions; some maintain distinctions in legality between real and fictive pornography depicting minors, while others regulate fictive material under general laws against child pornography.

Child pornography is erotic material that depicts persons under the designated age of majority. The precise characteristics of what constitutes child pornography varies by criminal jurisdiction.

Pornography in Pakistan is subject to several legal provisions. The Government of Pakistan has placed ban on internet websites containing such material since November 2011. Major pornography website are already barred in Pakistan. In 2016, it was reported that government of Pakistan ordered Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Pakistan to block more than 400,000 websites which contained pornographic content. Later in 2019, around 800,000 additional website containing pornographic content were banned by the Pakistan Telecom Authority on the order of government of Pakistan.

Johannes Cornelis Christiaan "Joop" Wilhelmus was a Dutch pornographer and entrepreneur, known for co-founding and publishing pornographic magazine Chick, founding and publishing child pornography magazine Lolita, and for pedophile advocacy.

Pornography in the Netherlands has been legal since 1985.

The legal status of female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), differs widely across the world.

Cybersex trafficking, live streaming sexual abuse, webcam sex tourism/abuse or ICTs -facilitated sexual exploitation is a cybercrime involving sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and/or rape on webcam.

The Indonesian Criminal Code, commonly known in Indonesian as Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana, abbreviated as KUH Pidana or KUHP), are laws and regulations that form the basis of criminal law in Indonesia. By deviating as necessary from Presidential Regulation dated 10 October 1945 No. 2, it stipulated that the criminal law regulations that are in effect are the Dutch criminal law regulations that existed on 8 March 1942. Currently, the Republic of Indonesia has its own Criminal Code, that is due to take effect in 2026.

References

  1. 1 2 "Wetboek van Strafrecht, artikel 252".
  2. ↑ "Wetboek van Strafrecht, artikel 252".
  3. ↑ Dutch Senate (2 July 1985). "Dutch Senate referencing the Chick-arrest" (in Dutch). Staten-Generaal Digitaal. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  4. ↑ Howitt, Dennis; Sheldon, Kerry (2007). Sex Offenders and the Internet . John Wiley & Sons. p.  75. ISBN   978-0-470-02800-1.
  5. ↑ Beetstra, Tjalling (2009). Van kwaad tot erger. De sociale constructie van satanisch ritueel misbruik in de Verenigde Staten en Nederland[From Bad to Worse. The Social Construction of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the United States and the Netherlands] (Thesis) (in Dutch). Datawyse/Universitaire Pers Maastricht.
  6. ↑ Van der Ploeg, Jan; De Groot, Roel, eds. (2010). "6.4 Is pedoseksualiteit schadelijk?" [6.4 Is Pedosexuality Harmful?]. Kindermishandeling: een complex probleem[Child Abuse: A Complex Problem] (in Dutch). Antwerpen: Garant. p. 110. ISBN   9789044125771.
  7. ↑ Tate, Tim (1990). Child Pornography: An Investigation. Methuen Publishing. p. 60. ISBN   978-0-413-61540-4.
  8. ↑ Schuijer, Jan; Rossen, Benjamin (1992). "The Trade in Child Pornography". IPT Journal. 4. Institute for Psychological Therapies . Retrieved 18 December 2009.
  9. ↑ Justitie (1 October 2002). Retrieved January 20, 2006. Archived April 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Libbenga, Jan (21 February 2007). "Dutch demand ban of virtual child porn in Second Life". The Register . Retrieved 18 December 2009.
  11. ↑ "Virtual child porn may be a crime in Netherlands". Reuters . 21 February 2007. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
  12. ↑ "Explosive rise in child porn websites". DutchNews.nl . 11 April 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
  13. ↑ "Increased amount of child sexual abuse material detected in Europe". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.