Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010: Section 42: Extreme Pornography
Section 42 of the Criminal Justice and
Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 
provides for a new offence criminalising the
possession of extreme pornographic material. It came into force on 28 March
2011. An information note on the new offence, including Frequently Asked Questions is available.
The new
offence is similar to that at section 63 of the Criminal Justice and
Immigration Act 2008, which applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The
Scottish offence goes further than that offence, however, in that it covers all
images of rape or other non-consensual
penetrative sexual activity.
The
new legislation is based on the principle that it is an offence to possess
extreme pornographic images. Although the IWF has no role in the investigation
of possession offences by members of the public it is conceivable that IT
professionals managing networks, abuse teams, and others charged with moderating
online services could be inadvertently exposed to this type of content.
Therefore, our industry members may wish to refer to the IWF as a point of
expertise for advice on whether content of which they have become aware is
potentially criminal and whether it should be considered for investigation by
the police.
Assuming
any such content is considered to be unlawful we will ensure the IT
professional reporting the content and their company are paired with the
relevant law enforcement unit so any potential offences could be
investigated.
Under
section 51 of the
Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, it is already illegal to publish, sell or
distribute or to possess with a view to selling or distributing, obscene
material, including the obscene pornographic material which is covered by this
new offence. The Bill contains provisions to increase the maximum penalty under
section 51 of the 1982 Act in respect of extreme pornographic material from
three to five years.
The
IWF will continue to apply existing legislation to such content in the course
of providing our national ‘notice and take-down’ service. On those rare
occasions where material believed to be unlawful is depicted on a website
hosted in the UK the IWF works in partnership with internet service providers
(ISPs), hosting companies, and the police to provide information to assist
investigations into the distributers of the content and to help combat abuse of
UK networks.
To report
criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK, including extreme pornography click here.
For more
information visit: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/crimes/pornography/ExtremePornograhicMateria#a1
