AustriaStGB Section 207a(4)(4), Computer-Generated and Altered Child Sexual Abuse Material
StGB Sec. 207a(4)(4), BGBl. Nr. 60/1974 as amended by BGBl. I Nr. 135/2023
In force since .
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
- Setting the rule reaches
- General
What it requires
- Do not produce, offer, procure, supply, show, or otherwise make accessible a realistic image that, whether AI-generated, altered, or unaltered, creates the impression of a sexual act involving a minor, per StGB Section 207a(1) and (4)(4).
- Do not knowingly access such an image online, or possess or procure one, per StGB Section 207a(3) and (3a).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-08Information Integrity
- GAI-RISK-11Obscene, Degrading, and/or Abusive Content
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
- ETSI EN 304 223
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Production, offering, or supplying such material (Section 207a(1)): imprisonment six months to three years; one to five years where many images are involved (Section 207a(1a)). Producing, importing, transporting, or exporting for distribution, or committing the offense commercially (Section 207a(2)): one to five years; one to ten years where committed as part of a criminal organization, with a specially severe consequence for the depicted minor, using serious violence, or knowingly or grossly negligently endangering the depicted minor's life; one to ten years where the distribution-purpose offense involves many images (Section 207a(2a)). Possessing or procuring an image of a minor aged 14 to 17 (Section 207a(3), first sentence): up to two years; of a minor under 14: up to three years. Knowingly accessing such an image online (Section 207a(3a)) carries the same exposure as possession under Section 207a(3). Committing the possession or online-access offense involving many images of a minor aged 14 to 17 (Section 207a(3b)): six months to three years, or six months to five years where many images of a minor under 14 are also or exclusively involved.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Ordinary criminal courts, on public prosecution.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does 'den Eindruck vermittelt' in section 207a(4) Z 4 StGB turn on how lifelike the image looks to an ordinary viewer, so that a clearly stylized drawing or cartoon falls outside it?
- Does a person who writes the prompt for an AI system 'herstellen' (produce) the image within the meaning of section 207a(1) StGB, or only the person who saves or shares the result?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 207a is a criminal prohibition on producing, offering, supplying, showing, procuring or possessing a pictorial sexual depiction of a minor, or knowingly accessing one online; subsection 4, item 4 extends it to a depiction made by altering an image or without using one. The section states no duty to create, keep or produce a log or record of any kind.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 207a(4) defines image-based sexual abuse material and sexual depictions of minors to include, at Z 4, any pictorial representation whose viewing creates the impression, whether through alteration of an image or without using one at all, that it is a representation of the kind described in Z 1 to 3: a realistic depiction of a sexual act involving a person under 14, or of an event that appears to be such an act, or the same acts involving a minor between 14 and 18.
This reaches a wholly AI-generated or synthetically altered image with no underlying real depiction, provided the image creates the impression of a realistic depiction, within the same offences as a real photograph. Section 207a(5) exempts producing or possessing such a depiction of a person aged 14 to 17 for one's own use where the act carries no risk of distribution.
Producing such an image, or offering, procuring, supplying, showing, or otherwise making it accessible to another, is an offense under Section 207a(1). Knowingly accessing one online is a separate offense under Section 207a(3a). Merely possessing or procuring one is punishable under Section 207a(3).
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app generates images with AI, generates video with AI or publishes adult content.
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