The Law Handbook 2024

Chapter 3.3: Sexual offences 161 • depicts or describes the breast area of a person who is, or who appears or is implied to be, a female child; and • reasonable people would regard as being, in the circumstances, offensive. Under the Crimes Act, material is any film, audio, photography, printed material, image, computer game, text, electronic material, or any other thing of any kind. An image may be still, moving, recorded or unrecorded. Furthermore, to distribute , in relation to material, includes: • publishing the material; • exhibiting, communicating, sending, supplying, or transmitting the material to any other person; and • making the material available for access by any other person. Sections 51W–51Y of the Crimes Act set out the child abuse material disposal order scheme. Producing child abuse material Under section 51B of the Crimes Act, it is an offence to involve a child in the production of child abuse material. This crime is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Under section 51C of the Crimes Act, a person is guilty of producing child abuse material if they: a intentionally produce a film, print, photograph, recording, piece of writing, drawing or altering, reproducing or copying material; and b the material is child abuse material. This crime is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Possessing or accessing child abuse material Under section 51G of the Crimes Act, it is an offence for a person to knowingly possess child abuse material. If the material is electronic, a person who controls access to the material is guilty of this offence. A person does not have to have physical possession of the original material to be guilty of this offence. Under section 51T of the Crimes Act, a defence to the crime of possessing child abuse material is if a person did not intentionally possess the material, and when they became aware that they had, they took all reasonable steps to stop possessing the material. Under section 51H of the Crimes Act, it is an offence for a person to access child abuse material. Accessing child abuse material includes viewing or displaying the material through an electronic medium. Each of these crimes is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Distributing child abuse material Under the Crimes Act (s 51D), it is an offence for a person to intentionally distribute child abuse material. Under section 51E of the Crimes Act, it is an offence for a person to administer, or assist in the administration of, a website that they intend to be used (and is used) to deal with child abuse material. Under section 51S of the Crimes Act, a defence to the crime of distributing child abuse material is that a person, on becoming aware that a website deals with child abuse material, took all reasonable steps to prevent any person from being able to use the website for that purpose. Reasonable steps include shutting down the website, modifying the operation of the site, and notifying the police or relevant regulatory authority. Under section 51F of the Crimes Act, it is an offence for a person over the age of 18 years to encourage the use of a website to deal with child abuse material. It does not matter whether some or all of the conduct constituting an offence occurred in Victoria, so long as the person using the website or the computer was in Victoria. Each of these crimes is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Assisting someone to avoid arrest Under section 51I of the Crimes Act, it is an offence for a person to provide information to someone to assist them to avoid arrest, or reduce the likelihood of being arrested, for committing one of the above offences relating to child abuse material. This crime is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Exceptions Exceptions to the above offences relating to child abuse material are listed in sections 51J to 51T of the