DjiboutiDigital Code, Book VI: Computer-Generated Child Pornography Ban
Loi n° 019/AN/23/9ème L portant Code Numérique, Art. 1 (définitions), Livre Sixième, Arts. 595 à 598
In force.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Place of effect
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
- Setting the rule reaches
- General
What it requires
- Do not produce, record, offer, make available, distribute, or transmit, by means of an information system, an image or representation of child pornography, including a computer-generated image depicting a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
- Do not procure, import, export, or possess such an image or representation, and do not facilitate a minor's access to pornographic material.
- Do not habitually consult an online public communication service that makes such an image or representation available.
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
Producing, distributing, or transmitting such material draws 2 to 7 years' imprisonment and a fine of 14,000,000 to 70,000,000 Djiboutian francs (Article 595); importing, exporting, possessing, or facilitating a minor's access to it draws 6 months to 5 years and a fine of 35,000,000 to 350,000,000 francs (Articles 596 and 597); and habitually consulting an online service that makes it available draws 10 years and a fine of up to 17,500,000 francs (Article 598).
Penalty structure
Graduated by offence: production, distribution, or transmission (Art. 595) draws 2 to 7 years' imprisonment and 14,000,000 to 70,000,000 francs; procurement, import, export, possession, or facilitating a minor's access (Arts. 596, 597) draws 6 months to 5 years and 35,000,000 to 350,000,000 francs, the statute's highest fine tier; habitual online consultation (Art. 598) draws a fixed 10 years and up to 17,500,000 francs.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Minimum
- 14,000,000
- Currency
- DJF
- Fixed cap
- 350,000,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Public prosecution (Ministère Public), under the ordinary Djiboutian criminal-procedure framework
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Articles 595 to 598 punish producing, procuring, possessing, and habitually consulting child pornography, including a computer-generated image, through an information system, and state no duty to create, keep, or produce a log or record of anything.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Article 1's definitions chapter defines child pornography as any visual representation of sexually explicit conduct, including a photograph, film, video, or image, whether manufactured or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, where a minor is involved in the production, and expressly includes a digital image, a computer image, or a computer-generated image in which a minor is engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as well as a visual representation created, adapted, or modified so that a minor appears to engage in such conduct.
Article 595 punishes anyone who produces, records, offers, makes available, distributes, or transmits, by means of an information system, an image or representation bearing the character of child pornography, with imprisonment of 2 to 7 years and a fine of 14,000,000 to 70,000,000 Djiboutian francs. Article 596 punishes procuring, importing, or exporting such an image or representation with imprisonment of 6 months to 5 years and a fine of 35,000,000 to 350,000,000 francs.
Article 597 punishes possessing such an image or representation, or facilitating a minor's access to pornographic material, with the same penalties as Article 596. Article 598 punishes habitually consulting an online public communication service that makes such an image or representation available, with 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to 17,500,000 francs.
Because the Article 1 definition already reaches a computer-generated image without requiring a real child to have been depicted, these offences bind an AI system's output on the same terms as a photograph or video. The Digital Code was adopted by the National Assembly on and signed by the President of the Republic on . The Digital Code states no day of entry into force.
Under Article 1 of the Civil Code (Loi n° 003/AN/18/8ème L), a law comes into force on the day it fixes or, failing that, on the day after its publication in the Journal Officiel, publication meaning the earliest publication, whether by the National Printing Office (Imprimerie Nationale) or by electronic means. No notice or register stating the day the Digital Code came into force has been located.
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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