PUNISHMENTS FOR ADULTS IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.

PART I
The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as The Act) has outlined a number of conducts or acts, criminalized them and thus set out penalties for such criminal acts/offences. Among these offences are acts that have to do with “child” pornography.
On who the Law contemplates as a child, by virtue of Section 23(5) of The Act, a “child” or “minor” means a person below 18 years of age.
Going forward, Section 23(4) of The Act has defined “child pornography” to include any pornographic material that visually depicts-
(a) A minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct;
(b) A person appearing to be a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; and
(c) Realistic images representing a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
To better understand the provisions of Section 23(4) of The Act above, the phrase “Sexually explicit conduct” has been defined by Section 58 of The Act to include at least the following real or simulated acts-
(a) Sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital or oral-anal, between children, or between an adult and a child, of the same or opposite sex;
(b) Bestiality;
(c) Masturbation;
(d) Sadistic or masochistic abuse in a sexual context; or
(e) Lascivious exhibition of the genitals or the pubic area of a child.
It is not relevant whether the conduct depicted is real or simulated.
Having outlined above the conducts that can be considered as “Sexually explicit conduct” by virtue of the definition in Section 58 of The Act, the provisions of Section 23(4) of The Act above would be easily understood.
By way of explanation however, a thing is categorized as child pornography if it is a material that depicts the following:
i. A child engaged in sexual intercourse in the manner as contemplated above, a child engaged in bestiality, a child engaged in masturbation, a child engaged in sadistic or masochistic abuse in a sexual context, and a child engaged in lascivious (indecent) exhibition of their genitals or pubic area.
ii. A person appearing to be a child engaged in sexual intercourse in the manner as contemplated above, a person appearing to be a child engaged in bestiality, a person appearing to be a child engaged in masturbation, a person appearing to be a child engaged in sadistic or masochistic abuse in a sexual context, and a person appearing to be a child engaged in lascivious (indecent) exhibition of their genitals or pubic area. It is instructive to note here that once the person in the pornographic material who is engaged in a sexually explicit conduct “appears” to be a child, the condition under this paragraph is satisfied, and such material is deemed a pornographic material.
iii. Realistic images representing a child engaged in sexual intercourse in the manner as contemplated above, realistic images representing a child engaged in bestiality, realistic images representing a child engaged in masturbation, realistic images representing a child in sadistic or masochistic abuse in a sexual context, and realistic images representing a child in lascivious (indecent) exhibition of their genitals or pubic area. It is to be highlighted that the images contemplated by the law in this paragraph do not have to be real images, it is enough if a material depicts a real image such as a form of art.
In concluding this Part, one must know that these acts which have been categorized as “Sexually Explicit Conducts” such as sexual intercourse, masturbation et al do not have to be real acts to qualify them as such, it is enough if the conduct is simulated.
In the Part II of this write-up, we would be discussing such conducts which The Act has criminalized, with their attendant penalties.