Germany’s parliament has voted to remove the possession of child sexual abuse materials as a criminal offence. The country’s Criminal Code will no longer include the section pertaining to child pornography, Bundestag (parliament) voted Thursday. Once the bill goes into effect, minimum sentencing for holding child abuse materials will be reduced and the criminal charge will become a misdemeanor, Reduxxed reported. “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 bill states. “The offences regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”Germany only a few years ago in 2021 classified child pornography possession as a felony with a one-year minimum sentence by Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democratic Party. .Federal officials in the bill rationalized the decriminalization move protects parents and teachers who download the material for the purpose of informing police. “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,” states the bill. Rather than make certain exceptions to the criminal code to accommodate this concern, parliament cut the section of the bill altogether. “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,” it states. “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.”Chairman of the child protection group German Children’s Aid – The Permanent Children’s Representation (Deutsche Kinderhilfe – Die ständige Kindervertretung) Rainer Becker warned parliament’s recent decriminalization of these abusive materials could be a violation of a European Union directive that deems all material related to child pornography is a serious criminal offence. The county’s Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) released a declaration stating “the distribution, possession and acquisition of child pornography must, in principle, remain classified as crimes,” per Reduxx. “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.”While the bill has garnered widespread condemnation from Christians and children’s rights groups, pro-peodophile groups have welcomed the change. German pro-pedophile activist group Krumme-13 (K13), which is described in German media as a so-called “self-help” organization for “pedosexuals,” have issued an announcement to its members offering legal advice to circumvent the law until the bill is passed. Anyone who visits the K13 website is advised to have their defence lawyers “submit applications for stays of proceedings on behalf of their clients in ongoing proceedings” until the law goes into effect, wrote the group, according to Reduxx. Just a few days prior to Thursday’s vote, K13’s founder on May 17 wrote a blog post lamenting Germany’s 2021 criminalization of child pornography, and how no politicians have shows them any sympathy. “No politician in all factions apologized to the thousands upon thousands of those affected who fell victim” to the 2021 update to the criminal code, wrote founder Dieter Gieseking.Gieseking has been charged multiple times for the possession of child pornography and has advocated for lowering the age of consent to 12-year-old children.
Germany’s parliament has voted to remove the possession of child sexual abuse materials as a criminal offence. The country’s Criminal Code will no longer include the section pertaining to child pornography, Bundestag (parliament) voted Thursday. Once the bill goes into effect, minimum sentencing for holding child abuse materials will be reduced and the criminal charge will become a misdemeanor, Reduxxed reported. “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 bill states. “The offences regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”Germany only a few years ago in 2021 classified child pornography possession as a felony with a one-year minimum sentence by Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democratic Party. .Federal officials in the bill rationalized the decriminalization move protects parents and teachers who download the material for the purpose of informing police. “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,” states the bill. Rather than make certain exceptions to the criminal code to accommodate this concern, parliament cut the section of the bill altogether. “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,” it states. “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.”Chairman of the child protection group German Children’s Aid – The Permanent Children’s Representation (Deutsche Kinderhilfe – Die ständige Kindervertretung) Rainer Becker warned parliament’s recent decriminalization of these abusive materials could be a violation of a European Union directive that deems all material related to child pornography is a serious criminal offence. The county’s Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) released a declaration stating “the distribution, possession and acquisition of child pornography must, in principle, remain classified as crimes,” per Reduxx. “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.”While the bill has garnered widespread condemnation from Christians and children’s rights groups, pro-peodophile groups have welcomed the change. German pro-pedophile activist group Krumme-13 (K13), which is described in German media as a so-called “self-help” organization for “pedosexuals,” have issued an announcement to its members offering legal advice to circumvent the law until the bill is passed. Anyone who visits the K13 website is advised to have their defence lawyers “submit applications for stays of proceedings on behalf of their clients in ongoing proceedings” until the law goes into effect, wrote the group, according to Reduxx. Just a few days prior to Thursday’s vote, K13’s founder on May 17 wrote a blog post lamenting Germany’s 2021 criminalization of child pornography, and how no politicians have shows them any sympathy. “No politician in all factions apologized to the thousands upon thousands of those affected who fell victim” to the 2021 update to the criminal code, wrote founder Dieter Gieseking.Gieseking has been charged multiple times for the possession of child pornography and has advocated for lowering the age of consent to 12-year-old children.
