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Crimes Act 1961

Crimes against morality and decency, sexual crimes, and crimes against public welfare - Sexual crimes

131B: Meeting young person following sexual grooming, etc

You could also call this:

“It's illegal for adults to meet or travel to meet someone under 16 for sexual reasons, even if they just talked online first.”

If you are 16 years old or older, you could go to jail for up to 7 years if you do certain things with someone under 16. These things include:

Meeting them in person, travelling to meet them, or getting them to travel to meet you. This is after you’ve already talked to them before.

When you do this, you must be planning to do something sexual with them that’s against the law. Or you might want them to do something sexual to you that’s against the law.

This law also applies if you think you’re talking to someone under 16, but it’s actually a police officer pretending to be young.

You might not get in trouble if you can prove two things: First, you tried hard to find out if the person was 16 or older. Second, you really believed they were 16 or older when you met them or travelled to meet them.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM329200.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
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131AB: Grooming for sexual conduct with young person, or

“An adult who tries to make friends with a child under 16 to do sexual things with them is breaking the law.”

Next

132: Sexual conduct with child under 12, or

“The law punishes adults who do sexual things with children younger than 12 years old.”

Part 7 Crimes against morality and decency, sexual crimes, and crimes against public welfare
Sexual crimes

131BMeeting young person following sexual grooming, etc

  1. Every person is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years if,—

  2. having met or communicated with a person under the age of 16 years (the young person) on an earlier occasion, he or she takes one of the following actions:
    1. intentionally meets the young person:
      1. travels with the intention of meeting the young person:
        1. arranges for or persuades the young person to travel with the intention of meeting him or her; and
        2. at the time of taking the action, he or she intends—
          1. to take in respect of the young person an action that, if taken in New Zealand, would be an offence against this Part, or against any of paragraphs (a)(i), (d)(i), (e)(i), (f)(i), of section 98AA(1); or
            1. that the young person should do on him or her an act the doing of which would, if he or she permitted it to be done in New Zealand, be an offence against this Part on his or her part.

            2. A reference in this section to a young person under the age of 16 years or the young person includes a reference to a constable who pretends to be a young person under the age of 16 years (the fictitious young person) if the offender, when taking any of the actions described in subsection (1), believed that the fictitious young person was a young person under the age of 16 years.

            3. It is a defence to a charge under subsection (1) if the person charged proves that,—

            4. before the time he or she took the action concerned, he or she had taken reasonable steps to find out whether the young person was of or over the age of 16 years; and
              1. at the time he or she took the action concerned, he or she believed on reasonable grounds that the young person was of or over the age of 16 years.

                Notes
                • Section 131B: inserted, on , by section 7 of the Crimes Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 41).
                • Section 131B heading: amended, on , by section 5(1) of the Crimes Amendment Act (No 3) 2011 (2011 No 79).
                • Section 131B(1A): inserted, on , by section 5(2) of the Crimes Amendment Act (No 3) 2011 (2011 No 79).