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Pornography in the Netherlands has been legal since 1985.
The creation, spreading, broadcasting and ownership of pornography are legal in the Netherlands. Pornography depicting persons under the age of 18, or appearing to depict such persons, is illegal to produce, spread or own under child pornography laws. Bestiality and pornography (appearing to) depict sexual acts with animals are illegal in the Netherlands since 2008. [1]
The 17th century saw a rise in interest in and production of pornographic literature in the Republic of the Netherlands, including the publication of 'The glorious deeds of John Shit, dedicated to the kackhuys' (De doorluchtige daden van Jan Stront, opgedragen aan het kackhuys) in 1684.
Around 1900, the availability and production of pornography increased due to technological advances in printing and photography. Protestant groups protested the immorality of pornography and called for legislation. On May 20, 1911, the Morality Law (Dutch: Zedelijkheidswet or Wet-Regout, officially Wet van 20 mei 1911 tot bestrijding van de zedeloosheid en beteugeling van de speelzucht) was passed, banning prostitution, trafficking of women, brothels, contraceptives, gambling, abortion, homosexuality and the spreading, creation and display of pornography. [2]
On 9 October 1967, the first public broadcast of nudity on Dutch television took place. Visual artist Phil Bloom sat naked in a chair in Hoepla, a program by VPRO. [3]
In 1968, the first Dutch erotic magazine Chick was launched. In 1970, the magazine was involved in a lawsuit known as the Chick-arrest. [4] Chick won the lawsuit as the Supreme Court ruled the magazine was not 'offensive to decency' (Dutch: aanstotelijk voor de eerbaarheid), paving the way for legal pornography and spawning the creation of other erotic magazines, including Candy, Rosie, Seventeen and Tuk.
In 1972, a public broadcast of the film Deep Throat in a cinema led to the Deep Throat-arrest. The Supreme Court ruled that while the broadcast was illicit, it was not 'offensive to decency', and the movie was permitted to be screened to persons aged 18 or over in theaters that could seat up to 50 people. [5] On February 18, 1977, Cinema Parisien in Amsterdam aired the film in a theater that could seat more than 50 people in order to provoke a test case.
The first law to legalise pornography in the Netherlands was drafted in 1979, which included a lift on the ban on making, spreading or owning pornographic text, images and items. The law sought to amend article 240 of the criminal code (Dutch: wijziging van artikel 240 van het Wetboek van Strafrecht en van enige andere bepalingen). The law took until 1984 to be accepted by the Dutch Parliament, being edited several times in the process, including the last change in 1984 which stated that the ban for child pornographic images would not be lifted. The law came into effect in 1986, after several years in which sexshops had been tolerated.
In October 2002, the legal age for acting and modeling in pornography in the Netherlands was raised from 16 to 18.
In 2019, almost 9 in 10 (89%) known URLs containing child sexual abuse material were hosted in Europe. The Netherlands hosts 71% of the child sexual abuse content found by the IWF. This equates to 93,962 URLs and is an increase from 2018 when the Netherlands was found to be hosting 47% of all known child sexual abuse material. [6]
In 2006, the Party for Neighbourly Love, Freedom and Diversity sought to legalise the possession of child pornography, under the condition that it would be approved when the children involved participated voluntarily and were not exploited. The party was disbanded in 2010, after the party had failed to receive the 30 signatures from each of the 19 Dutch electoral regions it would need to get on the ballot for the 2006 and 2010 general elections. [7] [8]
In 2010, new laws were passed to combat child pornography. The new laws made it illegal to click a hyperlink of which is can be expected that it might lead to child pornography, to attempt to meet a child with the intention of making child pornography, and owning any material that realistically depict persons appearing to be underaged, even when the subjects are in fact over 18 or the images have been digitally created or manipulated. [9] Owning material showing 'nudity in a family setting' is not illegal, neither are depictions of cherubs, as the addition of wings deem the images unrealistic. In 2011, the first person was convicted in the Netherlands for the possession of virtual child pornography, which was 'not distinguishable from reality at first glance'. Similar laws came into effect for pornography involving animals. Prior to 2010, producing pornography with animals was not explicitly illegal in the Netherlands.
In 2014, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ordered the dissolution of Union MARTIJN (Dutch: Vereniging MARTIJN), which had been striving to normalise sexual relations between adults and children and legalise child pornography since 1982. [10] [11]
Movies that feature 'explicit sexual acts' and 'details of genitalia' are rated for ages 16 and up by Kijkwijzer, the Dutch motion picture content rating system. [12] Movies with this rating may only be broadcast between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and cinemas that allow entry to persons under 16 to these movies are punishable by law. [13]
Vereniging Martijn was a Dutch association that advocated the societal acceptance of pedophilia and legalization of sexual relationships between adults and children.
Pornography laws by region vary throughout the world. The production and distribution of pornographic films are both activities that are legal in some but not all countries, as long as the pornography features performers aged above a certain age, usually 18 years. Further restrictions are often placed on such material.
The PROTECT Act of 2003 is a United States law with the stated intent of preventing child abuse as well as investigating and prosecuting violent crimes against children. "PROTECT" is a backronym which stands for "Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today".
Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with a minor, and sometimes the child's family, to lower the child's 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."
The Party for Neighbourly Love, Freedom, and Diversity, alternatively the Charity, Freedom, and Diversity Party, was a political party in the Netherlands. It existed without parliamentary representation and had only three known members as of 2006. The PNVD was commonly referred to as the "pedo party" by media outlets, due to its advocacy for the legalization of child pornography and the lowering of the age of consent. The party was originally founded on 31 May 2006 by three self-described pedophiles. Its motto was sapere aude, or "dare to know". Starting with the 2006 general election, the PNVD failed to contest electorally as it was unable to collect the 30 signatures from each of the 19 Dutch electoral regions it required to get on the ballot. On 14 March 2010, the party was dissolved.
Same-sex marriages are not performed in Aruba, Curaçao, or Sint Maarten, which are constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The islands were obliged after several court rulings to register any marriage registered in the Kingdom, but this primarily considers residency rights, and they do not have to give same-sex marriages the same legal effect as opposite-sex marriages. Marriage in the European territory of the Netherlands, as well as in the Caribbean municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, is open to any two people irrespective of sex.
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.
The history of zoophilia and bestiality begins in the prehistoric era, where depictions of humans and non-human animals in a sexual context appear infrequently in European rock art. Bestiality remained a theme in mythology and folklore through the classical period and into the Middle Ages and several ancient authors purported to document it as a regular, accepted practice—albeit usually in "other" cultures.
The ages of consent vary by jurisdiction across Europe. The ages of consent – hereby meaning the age from which one is deemed able to consent to having sex with anyone else of consenting age or above – are between 14 and 18. The vast majority of countries set their ages in the range of 14 to 16; only four countries, Cyprus (17), Ireland (17), Turkey (18), and the Vatican City (18), set an age of consent higher than 16.
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.
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin obscēnus, obscaenus, "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral repugnance and outrage in expressions such as "obscene profits" and "the obscenity of war". As a legal term, it usually refers to descriptions and depictions of people engaged in sexual and excretory activity.
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 harshest 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.
Child pornography is erotic material that depicts persons under the age of 18. The precise characteristics of what constitutes child pornography varies by criminal jurisdiction.
In the Netherlands, child pornography is illegal, making it one of the 103 out of 193 UN member states where it is illegal.
The Amsterdam sex crimes case is a court case involving Robert Mikelson's abuse of babies in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The defendant was Roberts Mikelson, dubbed "the Monster of Riga" by the Dutch press, who had worked at several daycare centres in Amsterdam and was accused of abusing 87 children as well as possession, production and distribution of child pornography. Mikelson was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years and 11 months in prison, followed by involuntary commitment.
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.
