The Offence of Possessing Child Pornography on a Computer Under English Law

Abstract

Child pornography is universally condemned as a form of sexual abuse by which children involved in its production are sexually exploited and mistreated by adults. In certain cases, it is also employed by paedophiles, who are sexually attracted to prepubescent children, to seduce target youngsters into sexual molestation.

To protect children, Engalnd has passed several anti-child pornography statues, one of which criminalises the possession of child pormography. In the age of the Internet and digital technology, most child pornographic materials are commonly produced in digital format. allowing them to be downloaded from the Internet and kept on a computer harddisk drive. This makes it doubtful whether the term 'possession' covers child pornography stored on a computer hardisk drive.

The principal aims of this article, therefore, are to analyse the offence of possessing child pornography on a computer under English law, and also to discuss the English judicial approaches to this novel legal queation.