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Protection of Children Act 1978 The 1978 Act was passed in response to a growing problem of child pornography. Its main purpose was to close some potential gaps in the measures available to police and prosecutors. The Act particularly deals with the use of children in pornographic photography even where no other form of abuse had occurred. The definition of "photograph" given in section 7(4) of the 1978 Act now includes photographs in electronic data format following the amendments made by section 84(4) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The main purpose of section 84 was to deal with the so-called "pseudo-photographs" of children. Pseudo-photographs are technically photographs, but they are created by computer software such as MS Paintbrush by using more than one picture. For example a child's face can be superimposed on an adult body or to another child's body together with the alteration of the characteristics of the body to create computer generated images where no physical abuse of a child occurs. Under the new section 7(7) of the 1978 Act, "pseudo-photograph means an image, whether made by computer-graphics or otherwise howsoever, which appears to be a photograph." Following the amendments made by the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, it is an offence for a person
(a) to take, or permit to be taken or to make, any indecent photographs
or
(b) to distribute or show such indecent photographs or
Section 3(1) - Corporate Bodies This section deals with the responsibility of an Organisation in relation to indecent images being held on any of it's computer systems. The Organisation or part of the management team may be prosecuted if: (a) The offence occurred with the knowledge or consent of any Director, Manager or Secretary. (b) It is proven attributable to any neglect by such persons. Both the organisation and the person will be guilty of the offence. It therefore follows that this section can be interpreted in several ways. If, for example, an Organisation has no IT security policy or audit trails and that is found to be a mitigating factor in the proliferate exchange of such material; the police may decide to prosecute the Organisation concerned. Section 160 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 Under section 160 of the 1988 Act as amended by section 84(4) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, it is an offence for a person to have any indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child in his possession. This offence also became a serious offence with a maximum imprisonment term not exceeding six months. It has been successfully used in its new form in the recent cases involving possession of child pornography. Section 2 of the Sexual Offences (Conspiracy & Incitement) Act 1996 The Sexual Offences (Conspiracy & Incitement) Act 1996 became law following its passage in the House of Commons in April and its third reading in the House of Lords in June 1996. Section 2 of the new Act makes it an offence to incite another person to commit certain sexual acts against children abroad. Section 2 extends, for the purposes of the Act, the scope of incitement to ensure that any incitement by means of a telephone call, fax, Internet message or similar method is deemed to take place in the UK if the message is received in the UK . The section will apply to the inciter, in the case of the Internet, the creator of the message or the world wide web pages. The use of the Internet was
very generalised by the members of the Parliament and their understanding
of the Internet is very doubtful. Although the introduction of the Act
is another step forward to combat child abusers, it would be very
difficult to enforce it to the users of the Internet.
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