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Crimes Act 1961

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

124A: Indecent communication with young person under 16

You could also call this:

“It's against the law for adults to share rude or naughty things with kids under 16.”

If you are 16 years old or older, you can go to jail for up to 3 years if you show indecent material to someone under 16 years old. This includes writing, speaking, or showing pictures or videos that are not appropriate for young people. It doesn’t matter if you do this directly or indirectly.

The law also applies if you show indecent material to a police officer who is pretending to be under 16 years old. If you believe the person is under 16, even if they are actually a police officer, you can still get in trouble.

You can defend yourself against this charge if you can prove two things: First, you tried to find out if the person was 16 or older before showing them the indecent material. Second, you honestly believed they were 16 or older when you showed them the material.

If you didn’t know the material was indecent, that’s not a good enough excuse. You would need to prove that you had no way of knowing it was indecent and that it was understandable for you not to know.

Only the Attorney-General can give permission for a private person to start a court case about this law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6469003.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
Family and relationships > Children and parenting
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124: Distribution or exhibition of indecent matter, or

“You can get in trouble for showing or giving out yucky things to people without a good reason.”

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125: Indecent act in public place, or

“It's against the law to do rude things in places where other people can see you.”

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

124AIndecent communication with young person under 16

  1. A person of or over the age of 16 years is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years if he or she intentionally exposes a person under the age of 16 years (the young person) to indecent material (whether written, spoken, visual, or otherwise, alone or in combination) in communicating in any manner, directly or indirectly, with the young person.

  2. A reference in subsection (1) to a person under the age of 16 years, or to the young person, includes a reference to a constable (as defined in section 2(1)) who pretends to be a person under the age of 16 years (the fictitious young person) if the person charged with an offence against subsection (1), when communicating with the fictitious young person and exposing the fictitious young person to indecent material, believed that the fictitious young person was a 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 communicating with the young person and exposing the young person to the indecent material, the person charged 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 of communicating with the young person and exposing the young person to the indecent material, the person charged believed on reasonable grounds that the young person was of or over the age of 16 years.

      1. It is no defence to a charge under subsection (1) that the person charged did not know that the material to which the charge relates was indecent, unless the person charged also proves—

      2. that the person charged had no reasonable opportunity of knowing it; and
        1. that in the circumstances the ignorance of the person charged was excusable.

          1. No private prosecution (as defined in section 5 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011) for an offence against this section can be commenced without the Attorney-General's consent.

          Compare
            Notes
            • Section 124A: inserted, on , by section 5 of the Crimes (Indecency) Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 44).