Germany’s Parliament (Bundestag) has received the votes necessary to remove a section of the Criminal Code which made the possession of child sexual abuse materials a felony crime. Once the bill, passed last Thursday, comes into effect, minimum sentences for the possession of child pornography will be reduced, and the offense will be downgraded to a misdemeanor.
According to the Bundestag, the bill stipulates that “possession and acquisition should be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment. The offenses regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”
The possession of child sexual abuse materials was first classified as a crime in 2021 after Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) introduced a minimum sentence of one year for the offense. The move classified the act as a felony, which it remained for three years until this most recent downgrade.
Responding to the passage of the bill, chairman of the association “German Children’s Aid – The Permanent Children’s Representation” (Deutsche Kinderhilfe – Die ständige Kindervertretung), Rainer Becker, pointed out that Germany could violate a directive from the European Union that classifies any child pornographic media as a serious criminal offense with the change to the law.
A statement of opposition was released by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). “The distribution, possession and acquisition of child pornography must, in principle, remain classified as crimes,” reads the declaration.
“Even if the increase in the penalty range in Section 184b of the Criminal Code in 2020 has led to practical problems in certain cases, a blanket reduction in the penalty range is the wrong solution. A change should be limited to the problem cases and solve them effectively. Scientific findings show that if the penalty framework shifts downwards, the penalties imposed in practice also tend to be lower.”
The rationale behind the downgrading of the crime to a misdemeanor included consideration for parents and teachers of children who download the content in order to inform law enforcement. “Such cases have occurred particularly frequently among parents and teachers of older children or young people who found child pornography on them and passed it on to other parents, teachers or the school management to inform them of the problem,” reads Article 1 of the bill.
The legislation continues: “A downgrade to a misdemeanor is also urgently required in order to be able to respond appropriately and with the necessary flexibility to the large proportion of juvenile offenders. Here, too, the perpetrators generally do not act in order to be sexually aroused by the child pornography content, but rather out of a drive typical of the adolescent stage of development, such as naivety, curiosity, thirst for adventure or the desire to impress.”
However, despite acknowledging such circumstances, the bill has not made certain exceptions, but rather downgrades possession of child pornography altogether – a fact that has not gone unnoticed by pro-pedophile campaigners.
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