Hong KongPrevention of Child Pornography Ordinance, sections 3 and 4, offences relating to child pornography
Prevention of Child Pornography Ordinance (Cap. 579), ss. 2-4
In force since .
A specific illegal content rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
As of .
What it requires
- Do not publish child pornography; publishing includes distributing, circulating, selling, hiring, giving or lending it to another person and showing it to another person, and distributing includes making any message or data available through any means of electronic transmission (ss. 2(1), 2(2), 3(2)).
- Treat a computer-generated image or other visual depiction of a person who is or is depicted as being a child as child pornography, whether or not it depicts a real person and whether or not it has been modified; a child is a person under 16 (s. 2(1)).
- Do not print, make, produce, reproduce, copy, import or export child pornography (s. 3(1)).
- Do not publish, or cause to be published, an advertisement that conveys or is likely to be understood as conveying the message that any person has published, publishes or intends to publish child pornography (s. 3(4)).
- Do not possess child pornography; if it comes into your possession without your having asked for it, endeavour to destroy it within a reasonable time (ss. 3(3), 4(3)(d)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Publishing child pornography, and printing, making, producing, reproducing, copying, importing or exporting it, is punishable on conviction on indictment by a fine of $2,000,000 and imprisonment for 8 years, or on summary conviction by a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment for 3 years (s. 3(1), (2)). Possessing it is punishable on conviction on indictment by a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment for 5 years, or on summary conviction by a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for 2 years (s. 3(3)).
Penalty structure
Fine of $2,000,000 and imprisonment for 8 years on conviction on indictment for publishing child pornography (s. 3(2)); $1,000,000 and 3 years on summary conviction.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- HKD
- Fixed cap
- 2,000,000
What this law does
Section 3(2) of the Prevention of Child Pornography Ordinance makes it an offence to publish any child pornography, punishable on conviction on indictment by a fine of $2,000,000 and imprisonment for 8 years, or on summary conviction by a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment for 3 years. A person publishes child pornography if, among other acts, the person distributes, circulates, sells, hires, gives or lends it to another person or shows it to another person.
To distribute includes making any message or data available through any means of electronic transmission. Section 3(1) makes it an offence to print, make, produce, reproduce, copy, import or export any child pornography. Section 3(4) makes it an offence to publish or cause to be published an advertisement that conveys or is likely to be understood as conveying the message that any person has published, publishes or intends to publish any child pornography.
Child pornography includes a photograph, film, computer-generated image or other visual depiction of a person who is or is depicted as being a child, whether or not it is a depiction of a real person and whether or not it has been modified. A child is a person under the age of 16.
Section 3(3) makes it an offence to possess child pornography, punishable on conviction on indictment by a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment for 5 years, or on summary conviction by a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for 2 years. Section 4(2) provides a defence that the defendant had not seen the child pornography and did not know, nor have any reasonable cause to suspect, it to be child pornography.
Section 4 also provides defences of artistic merit, of classification as a Class I or Class II article under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, of a genuine educational, scientific or medical purpose, of the public good, and of reasonable steps to ascertain the age of the person depicted with a belief on reasonable grounds that the person was not a child.
Against a possession charge it is also a defence that the defendant had not asked for any child pornography and endeavoured to destroy it within a reasonable time after it came into the defendant’s possession. The Ordinance commenced on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform, publishes adult content, generates images with AI or generates video with AI.