New ZealandFilms, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993, Restricted Publications and Supply to Minors
Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (NZ), No 94, ss. 3, 122, 122A, 125-127
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived . Publisher's page: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0094/latest/whole.htmlIn force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- New Zealand Police; Attorney-General's consent required for a private prosecution
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to any supplier, distributor or exhibitor of a publication, including a service provider or platform that gives access to digital content over a public data network; online access counts as distributing, as for a physical retailer. Email and broadcasting-service transmission are excluded.
- Do not supply, distribute, exhibit or display a publication classified as restricted otherwise than in accordance with its classification, most often an age limit such as 18 or a younger age. This is a strict-liability offence; knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it is restricted carries a higher penalty.
- Do not supply, distribute, exhibit or display to a person under 18 any publication that would be classified objectionable if made available to a person of that recipient's age, where you know or have reasonable cause to believe this; the offence applies even if the publication is not objectionable for an adult.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Under s. 125(2), strict-liability supply of a restricted publication contrary to its classification carries a fine of up to $3,000 for an individual or $10,000 for a body corporate. Under s. 126(1) and (2), the knowledge-based version of that offence, and the separate offence of supplying to a person under 18 a publication objectionable for that person's age, carry up to 3 months' imprisonment or a $10,000 fine for an individual, or a $25,000 fine for a body corporate.
Penalty structure
Body-corporate fine cap under s. 126(2)(b) for the knowledge-based restricted-publication and supply-to-minor offences; a natural person instead faces up to 3 months' imprisonment or a $10,000 fine under s. 126(2)(a). The strict-liability form of the restricted-publication offence under s. 125(2) carries lower caps of $3,000 (individual) and $10,000 (body corporate).
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- NZD
- Fixed cap
- 25,000
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Any supplier, distributor, or exhibitor of a publication, including a service provider or platform that provides access to digital content by means of a public data network; email and broadcasting-service transmission are excluded from the definition of digital content.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
The cited sections create strict-liability and knowledge offences for dealing in a restricted publication, or supplying an objectionable one to a person under 18, and state no duty to create or keep a record of an age check or a supply.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
A publication classified as restricted may not be supplied, distributed, exhibited, or displayed otherwise than in accordance with its classification, most often an age limit such as 18 years or a younger specified age; doing so is a strict-liability offence, and doing so knowing or with reasonable cause to believe the publication is restricted carries a higher penalty.
Separately, supplying, distributing, exhibiting, or displaying to a person under 18 any publication that would itself be classified objectionable if made available to a person of that recipient's age is an offence where the supplier knows or has reasonable cause to believe this, regardless of whether the publication is objectionable for an adult recipient.
Distribute is defined to include providing access to a publication by means of a public data network, so an online host or platform supplying or displaying content falls within these provisions on the same terms as a physical retailer.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .