Crimes Act 1961

Crimes against personal privacy - Intimate visual recordings

216K: Exceptions to prohibition in section 216J

You could also call this:

"When you don't break the rules in section 216J because of your job or sharing intimate recordings with the right people"

If you do something related to your job or a law, you might not break the rules in section 216J. You can do your job without worrying about section 216J if you are following the law. This applies to people who work under any enactment.

If you share an intimate visual recording with someone who is allowed to see it, you will not break the rules in section 216J. This is because you are only sharing it with someone who is supposed to see it, like a person mentioned in section 216N(1). You are allowed to share it with them.

If you help share an intimate visual recording without knowing it is intimate, you will not break the rules in section 216J. This could be because you are working for a company that delivers or stores recordings, like a postal operator or a network operator. You might also work for a service provider that helps people access the internet.

Some words have special meanings in this law. A courier is someone who carries things from one place to another as a job. A network operator is a company that helps people communicate with each other. A postal operator is a company that delivers mail and packages. A service provider is a company that helps people access the internet. A public data network is a system that allows people to communicate with each other using the internet.

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This page was last updated on 4 August 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM329865.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Criminal lawRights and equality > Privacy

216J: Prohibition on publishing, importing, exporting, or selling intimate visual recording, or

"It's against the law to share, bring in, take out, or sell private pictures or videos of people without their permission."

216L: Disposal and forfeiture, or

"The court can order the destruction of illegal recordings and the seizure of equipment used to make them."

Part 9ACrimes against personal privacy
Intimate visual recordings

216KExceptions to prohibition in section 216J

Nothing in section 216J(1)(a), (b), or (c) applies to anything done by any person in the course of, or in connection with, exercising or performing any powers, duties, or functions under any enactment.
Nothing in section 216J(1)(a) applies to any person by reason only of that person publishing an intimate visual recording to a person referred to in section 216N(1).
Nothing in section 216J applies to any person who, not knowing or suspecting that a visual recording is an intimate visual recording, facilitates access to that recording by reason only of providing some or all of the means necessary for—
delivery of the recording in physical form (for example, by a postal operator or courier); or
transmission (other than by broadcasting) of the recording (for example, by a network operator or service provider providing only a network or facility through which a recording is transmitted); or
storage of the recording electronically in a way that is accessible by any other person or persons.

In subsection (3), unless the context otherwise requires,—
courier means a person carrying on business as a courier
network operator has the same meaning as in section 3 of the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act 2013
postal operator has the same meaning as in section 2(1) of the Postal Services Act 1998
public data network has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Telecommunications Act 2001
service provider—
1. means a person providing Internet access, email access, or both of those facilities, by means of a public data network; but
2. does not include a network operator.

Notes

Section 216K: inserted, on 5 December 2006, by section 4 of the Crimes (Intimate Covert Filming) Amendment Act 2006 (2006 No 75).
Section 216K(4) network operator: amended, on 13 November 2018, by section 40 of the Telecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Amendment Act 2018 (2018 No 48).