Act safely, avoid risksSexualized depictions: What parents and professionals need to know

Special care must be taken with sexualized images of children under the age of 14. German criminal law has strict regulations for so-called child pornography content. In addition to production and possession, the reproduction, distribution and dissemination of this content is also punishable.
It is important to know: In addition to images that clearly show sexual violence against children, images and videos of a "fully or partially unclothed child in a provocative sexual posture" are also punishable. The same applies to the "sexually provocative depiction of a child's unclothed genitals or unclothed buttocks".

For parents and professionals, this means above all: Do not act on your own initiative! Such content should not be forwarded, saved or reproduced using additional screenshots or other copies. Even if the intention is to document an incident or secure evidence, such measures can entail legal risks.

Instead, existing reporting and support structures should be used. Depending on the situation, these may be the police, specialized counselling centres or the designated contact persons in a facility. These can help to classify the incident and plan the next steps in a legally compliant manner.

The most important facts at a glance:

• The production, possession, distribution and making available of sexualized images of children are punishable by law.
• No such content may be stored, forwarded or reproduced.
• Support should be obtained from the police or specialist advice centers.

Criminal law protection provisions also apply to sexualized images of young people aged 14 to 17. In particular, the Criminal Code criminalizes the distribution and dissemination of pornographic content for young people.

Unlike for children under the age of 14, however, the law takes into account the fact that adolescents develop their sexuality and enter into relationships. For this reason, criminal law provides for exceptions for consensually produced and exchanged recordings between young people. This provision is intended to prevent young people from being criminalized solely on the basis of the consensual exchange of intimate images with their peers.

If it becomes known that young people have exchanged such images, the context should first be clarified. If the images were created consensually and exchanged exclusively between the young people involved, the legal assessment is different from cases in which images were created without consent, forwarded or made accessible to a larger group of people.

However, as sexualized images of young people are generally subject to a ban on production and dissemination, the following also applies here: do not conduct your own investigations, do not disseminate content and, if necessary, contact the police or specialist advice centres.

The most important points at a glance:

• Creating and distributing sexualized images of young people is a punishable offence.
• A consensual and private exchange between two people of the same age can remain unpunished.
• If you are unsure, consult specialist agencies and do not carry out your own assessments or investigations.

If pornographic or sexualized content featuring adults appears on the devices of children or young people, there may be various reasons for this. For example, it may be commercial pornographic content such as films, photos or links to porn sites that appear in messenger groups or on social networks. However, intimate content may also have been created privately by adults and sent specifically to children and young people.

In such situations, the protection of children and young people is paramount for parents and professionals. Minors must not have access to pornographic content. Regardless of how this content got onto the device, the first thing to do is to assess the situation and avoid further confrontation. If the pornographic content has been sent specifically to children or young people, it is also essential to check whether the child concerned has already been subjected to sexual violence or is at risk of being contacted by the person again.

Compared to content involving children or young people, depictions of adults do not generally pose the same criminal law risk when dealing with the material as part of the investigation of an incident. Measures such as securing a chat history or documenting the facts of the case are therefore to be classified differently in legal terms than in the case of sexualized images of children or adolescents. Adults can therefore assist with reporting and deleting pornographic content without any worries.

At the same time, the same applies here: Content should not be reproduced unnecessarily or passed on to third parties. The aim is to objectively classify and protect the children or young people concerned.

The most important points at a glance:

• Adult pornography must not be made accessible to minors.
• The handling and viewing of pornographic material as part of the support and clarification of an incident is generally possible without any problems.
• In case of uncertainty, the support of counseling centers or the police can be consulted.