SwitzerlandSwiss Criminal Code, Pornographic Depictions of Non-Genuine Sexual Acts with Minors
Swiss Criminal Code (StGB/CP/CP), SR 311.0, Art. 197 para. 4-5
In force since .
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- The provision's own wording distinguishes genuine from non-genuine sexual acts with minors without requiring that a depiction involve or be traceable to a real minor, so do not produce, store, market, advertise, offer, show, pass on, make accessible, acquire or possess a pornographic depiction of a non-genuine sexual act with a minor, including a drawn, computer-generated or AI-generated depiction that does not involve a real minor.
- A depiction that instead contains a genuine sexual act with a minor carries a materially higher penalty than a non-genuine one.
- Consuming or producing such non-genuine content for personal consumption is a separate, lesser offence and is not a defence to producing or distributing it to others.
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.
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
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Article 197 paragraph 4: a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or a monetary penalty for producing, storing, marketing, offering, showing, passing on, making accessible, acquiring or possessing (including via electronic media) items or recordings containing sexual acts involving animals or non-genuine sexual acts with minors; a custodial sentence not exceeding five years where the content is genuine. Paragraph 5: a custodial sentence not exceeding one year or a monetary penalty for consuming or producing such non-genuine content for one's own consumption.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Article 197 paragraphs 1-9 (read in full) create the pornography offences and a forfeiture rule for items involved; no clause names a log, record or audit trail, or requires demonstrating, proving or producing anything. The Criminal Code's own notification duty for pornographic articles produced or imported from abroad (Art. 362) and its general extraterritoriality rules (Art. 5) sit outside paragraphs 4-5.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Article 197 paragraph 4 penalises, with a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or a monetary penalty, any person who produces, imports, stores, markets, advertises, exhibits, offers, shows, passes on or makes accessible to others, acquires, or procures or possesses via electronic media or otherwise, items or recordings that contain sexual acts involving animals or non-genuine sexual acts with minors; where the items or recordings instead contain genuine sexual acts with minors, the penalty rises to a custodial sentence not exceeding five years, in the wording in force since .
Paragraph 5 separately penalises, with a custodial sentence not exceeding one year or a monetary penalty, consuming or producing for one's own consumption the same non-genuine content. Paragraph 9 excludes an item from being regarded as pornographic where it has a cultural or scientific value that justifies its protection by law.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app generates content with AI or publishes adult content.
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