HARMONISATION OF LAWS AGAINST CHILD PORNOGRAPHY THE FACTS The Internet is now almost the only medium for

the creation (including by downloading), the distribution and possession of child pornography. And the Internet has made the trade in child pornography a global problem. Almost every case related to child pornography involves more than one State and more than one country, as recent reports of child pornography rings and syndicates confirm

CNN Justice Producer, Terry Frieden, on 3 August 2011, reported the arrest of more 72 members of a child pornography ring who engaged in what authorities describe as horrific and unspeakable crimes.....for sexually exploiting children from 12 years old to as young as infants. Top federal law enforcement officials say agents busted the global online pornography ring following an intense international investigation that began in 2009. The ring, based in the United States, reached across five continents and 14 countries; Associated Press Writer Veronika Oleksyn reported, on 3 February 2010, that Austrian authorities have uncovered a major international child pornography ring involving more than 2,360 suspects from 77 countries, including hundreds in the United States, who paid to view videos of young children being sexually abused; Charles Wilson, on 5 May 2010, reported that Federal prosecutors had broken up a major online international child pornography ring that at its peak had more than 1,000 members trading millions of sexually explicit images....and authorities said they are seeking the extradition of several suspects from overseas. Immigration and postal agencies also took part in the investigation, along with state and local police.....Besides Indiana and Louisiana, suspects came from California, Alaska, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia and Florida......The government is working with police in several countries, including France, Germany and England, to investigate other suspects.....Investigators also believe the group had members in Asia, Africa and South America; and Knoxville News Sentinel Co., on 18 September 2010, published a report that a four-year international investigation into the backers of hundreds of child pornography websites has identified 30,000 customers in 132 countries, led to hundreds of convictions in the United States and landed the ringleaders running the sites in Eastern European jails. The agents revealed the workings of what they call the most significant commercial child

porn bust in the Internet's history, in which multiple authorities from the United States, Canada, England, Italy, Belarus, Ukraine, Australia and other countries, plus Interpol and Europol, banded together to close down 230 websites, dismantling what is believed to be the most sophisticated commercial child porn operation to date.....The ring used a variety of online and traditional payment methods, elaborate defense measures and a franchise business model one Interpol agent compared to a fast-food chain to make millions of dollars providing 10,000 Americans and 20,000 others across the globe access to images and videos of sexually exploited boys and girls, some as young as 3 years old..... ; and

Operational Cathedral, one of the largest international police child pornography operations ever mounted where the British police and Interpol uncovered a child pornography ring, called The Wonderland Club, with 180 known members spread across 49 different identifiable countries. Between them the members possessed over 750,000 child pornographic images and over 1,800 hours of digitised video. Images of over 1,200 different children were discovered by investigators. However over two-thirds of the national police forces did not become involved in the co-ordinated global police action that was aimed at arresting the members and closing down the club.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, to learn that law enforcement agencies have consistently complained about the frustrations they have to endure when investigating cases of child pornography because of either the lack of any legislation specific to child pornography in many countries or the lack of the harmonisation of child pornography laws, as well as sentencing policies, for offences which are of a global nature. This lack of harmonised child pornography laws among international jurisdictions stands in stark and chilling contrast to the globalisation of the trade in child pornography by paedophiles, perverts and child sexual abusers, facilitated by a globalised advancing and converging information and communication technology, which includes the technology that facilitates financial transactions via the Internet to any part of the world.

THE PROBLEMS There may be a number of problems preventing the harmonisation of laws specific to child pornography but, in my opinion, the most obvious one is the difference in the legal definitions of child and child pornography, not only among and between different countries but also between and among States in the same country, like Australia and the

United States. In the words of Margaret A Healy in Child pornography: an international perspective, a discussion paper for an ECPAT Conference: The question as to what constitutes child pornography is extraordinarily complex. Standards that are applied in each society or country are highly subjective and contingent upon differing moral cultural, sexual, social and religious beliefs that do not easily translate into law. Even if we confine ourselves to a legal definition of child pornography, the concept is elusive. Legal definitions of both child and child pornography differ globally and may even differ among legal jurisdictions within the same country. In most countries, a child for the purposes of child pornography is any person under the age of 18 years. But there are still some states and countries where a child is defined as a person under the age of 16 years. For instance, in the Australian States of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, a child is a person under the age of 16 years while it is under the age of 18 years in the rest of the country. Given that the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children is global problem, it does not make sense that there are differences in the definition of a child among global laws against child pornography. Another frustrating problem is the definition of child pornography or child abuse images. While there is a common theme defining child pornography in almost all jurisdictions, namely depictions or representations of a child involved or engaged in an act or conduct of a sexual nature, not all jurisdictions include descriptions or a virtual child in the definitions. Under federal law in the USA (18 U.S.C. 2256), for instance, child pornography is defined as any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where

the production of the visual depiction involves the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or the visual depiction is a digital image, computer image, or computer-generated image that is, or is indistinguishable from, that of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or the visual depiction has been created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Based on the principle of no harm, no crime, only depictions of actual, real children, or depictions which are indistinguishable from actual, real children, or which appear to be of actual, real children, will constitute child pornography in the USA.

While descriptions of child sexual abuse may be seen as less, but still potentially, harmful, the exclusion of virtual child pornography from anti-child pornography laws in this age of the Network Society makes very little sense and seems to contradict the very reason why depictions, as well as descriptions, of child pornography should be prohibited. Child sexual abuse images and descriptions constitute the noncontact abuse of children, as opposed to contact abuse. Child pornography is not about physical harm to children - although there is enough anecdotal evidence to confirm that it could, and in many cases did, lead to actual physical contact abuse, and even murder, such as in the tragic cases of Tia Riggs and Holly Jones, to name but two tragedies. Child pornography is about the emotional and psychological trauma and the degradation of children. Child pornography not only makes all children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation but it degrades all children and not just the child-victims. The objective of all anti-child pornography legislation is to eliminate depictions (and, in many jurisdictions, descriptions) of child pornography so as to protect children from the risk of abuse and exploitation. Collectors of child pornography stimulate the market of what is a multi-billion dollar industry in which thousands of children are abused and tortured to meet the demand for such images. As the Canadian Supreme Court held in R v Sharpe: The greatest benefit to prohibiting the possession of child pornography is that it helps to prevent the harm to children which results from its production. By aiming to eradicate the legal market for such materials, the legislation acts as a powerful force to reduce the production of child pornography. Two points should be noted

the reference of the Supreme Court to harm which results from its production. This is not a reference to the obvious harm caused during the creation of child pornography but harm which results from its production, i.e. from non-contact abuse; and the fact that the Supreme Court does not specifically refer to child pornography involving only real children.

The statement by Daniel S Armagh (Virtual Child Pornography: Criminal Conduct or Protected Speech, Cardozo Law Review, 1994) that increasingly, graphic software packages and computer animation are being used to manipulate or morph images and to create virtual images indistinguishable from photographic depictions of actual human beings. This technology, while revolutionising the computer and entertainment industries, has also breathed new life into the world of child pornography, creating unparalleled challenges to law enforcement officers and prosecutors across the country

confirms what law enforcement agents have discovered in almost every case of child pornography investigated that the collection and viewing of child abuse images is not restricted to child pornography involving only real, actual children. The fact is that an illegal image does not become legal simply because it was produced by a different means. Child abuse images are illegal regardless of the manner of its creation and should be reflected so in all anti-child pornography legislations. There is no doubt that the market for child abuse images is stimulated by both real and virtual child pornography. In the words of Daniel S Armagh: There is little argument that real harm is perpetrated on children who are depicted in child pornographyScanners and inexpensive software packages now allow offenders to create virtual child pornography, which they often trade for more explicit images of real childrenChild pornographers are always seeking more, and more explicit, child pornography. Virtual child pornography feeds this cycle and sustains the market. For the purpose of child pornography, the identity of the child is not a relevant consideration. Whether the image involves a real child, or of a person who is no longer a child but is made to appear or look like or represent a child, or of a person who has long since passed away or of a fictitious child should not be relevant in determining whether or not the image represents the sexual abuse and exploitation of a child.

THE SOLUTION The starting point of any discussion on the protection of children should be the appropriateness of constitutions, conventions, protocols and charters which deal with the rights of children that all children have the right to be protected from abuse, neglect, maltreatment and degradation. But despite constitutions, conventions, protocols and charters on the rights of children, children worldwide are daily victims of murder, rape, neglect, maltreatment, degradation, sexual abuse and exploitation proof that society only pays lip-service to the principle of that the best interests of the child is paramount in all matters concerning the child. Are children themselves expected to defend their rights? Section 28(d) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, like the UN Convention and Protocol on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, provides that every child has the right.....to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation. Children are being raped almost every day. Many children are assaulted and even murdered throughout the country. Children are left homeless and neglected. Hundreds of children are begging in streets

for scraps of food. And there is the exponential growth in the traumatisation and victimisation of children through online sexual abuse and exploitation. But, according to section 28(d) of the Constitution, all those children have the right to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse and degradation. But the Constitution does not say whose duty, obligation and responsibility it is to protect, not the rights of the child, but children themselves. Perhaps the reference to the rights of the child is part of the problem. Adults are able to protect and defend their constitutional rights because they are adults with life experiences and knowledge of their rights. Is the same expected of a six-month old infant with no life experience or knowledge? The fact is that children do not enjoy any constitutional right for the simple reason that they are in no position to protect and defend the rights themselves. It may be argued that it will not make any difference, but would it not make more sense, and perhaps some difference, for constitution, conventions, protocols and charters on the rights of children to be re-drafted as the duties, obligations and responsibilities of adults towards children? Child pornography, in any form, has no redeeming virtues. It has no value as free speech. It is contra bonos mores and harmful to society itself. It neither protects nor promotes any core cultural or social value. It is an assault on the dignity of every child. And, as global problem, it needs to be a global, harmonised legislative response.

MODEL LEGISLATION The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, in its Child Pornography: Model Legislation and Global Review, sets out the minimum requirements for any legislation to be an appropriate and effective response to the problem of child pornography. The law must(1) be specific to child pornography.

In some countries, law enforcement agents dealing with child pornography offences have to depend on general pornography or obscenity laws. (2) provide a clear definition of child pornography.

The use of the expression child pornography may be convenient but its reference to pornography does create a problem, as was demonstrated in the South African Constitutional Court case of Lascoe Ruc de Reuck (CCT 5/03). De Reuck was charged with possession of child pornography under section 27(1) of the Films and Publications Act, 1996. Early in the proceedings, De Reuck challenged the constitutional validity of the provisions of the Act on which the charges were based.

According to the Constitutional Court, the central issue before it was the interpretation of child pornography as defined in section 1 and employed in relation to publications and films in section 27(1) of the Act. At paragraph 20 of the judgment, the Constitutional Court referred to the dictionary meaning of pornography as the explicit description or exhibition of sexual subjects or activity in literature, painting, films, etc. in a manner intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic feelings; literature etc. containing this. Based on this definition, the Constitutional Court held that the stimulation of erotic rather than aesthetic feelings is an essential element of the definition of child pornography and that any image that predominantly stimulates aesthetic feelings is not caught by the definition. The restriction of the application of criminal law only to child pornography that stimulates the erotic rather than aesthetic feelings, amounts to openly endorsing the abuse and degradation of children as long as that abuse and degradation produces an image that evokes aesthetic and not erotic feelings in the observer. Any sexual conduct involving a child is child abuse and child pornography is evidence of that abuse. It matters not to the child-victim, or to society itself, what that record of abuse stimulates in others. Defining child pornography as only those representations which evoke erotic feelings in the possessor reveals a disturbing misunderstanding of what child pornography is all about and echoes the frightening conclusion of Manuel Castells on the use of the Internet for the distribution of child pornographyThus, the network society devours itself, as it consumes/destroys enough of its own children to lose the sense of continuity of life across generations, so denying the future of humans as a humane species. (End of Millennium, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol III, Blackwell Publishers, 1998) Child pornography has nothing to do with pornography and should not be defined by twinning the meanings of child and pornography but as a single concept just as one will misinterpret what a baby shower if it is defined by twinning the meanings of baby and shower! (3) criminalise all computer-facilitated acts and conduct related to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. Computer-facilitated offences should include the creation, production, possession and distribution of child abuse materials, as well as the use of computer-facilities for making financial transactions related to child pornography, the grooming and luring of children for sexual gratification. (4) criminalise the possession of child pornography, regardless of the intent to distribute. This is a response to the fact that there are some countries which prohibit the distribution but not the possession of child pornography. This

is somewhat of a contradiction since child pornography is mainly downloaded from its distribution via the Internet.
(5)

and require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to report suspected child pornography to law enforcement or to some other mandated agency. The Internet is the preferred medium for the trade in child pornography. Given the volume of data-transmission via the Internet, every second of every day, it is impossible for any law enforcement agency, or other mandated authority, to monitor the abuse of the Internet for the distribution and accessing of child pornography. But there is technology available for ISPs to be able to monitor the abuse of their services, by their clients, for illegal purposes, such as the hosting of child abuse materials, the distribution and accessing of such materials and the use of their services for financial transactions related to child pornography. In addition to reporting obligations, ISPs which provide social networking and chat room services, which attract children, should also be required to moderate such services to ensure that identifiable child predators should be blocked from using such services to target vulnerable children.

MODEL LEGISLATION The following may be seen as an appropriate and effective response to the exponentially-growing problem of the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, based South Africas Films and Publications Act, 65 of 1996 and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and related Matters) Amendment Act, 32 of 2007:

PREAMBLE TO THE ACT TAKING ACCOUNT of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially Article 34 thereof, the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, especially Articles 1, 4, 16 and 27, the Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action, adopted at the 1st World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (1996), the Yokohama Global Commitment adopted at the 2nd World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Article 9 of the Convention on Cybercrime; and NOTING WITH CONCERN that-

(a) the creation, production, distribution and possession of child abuse materials, whether of real or imaginary children, is a form of non-contact abuse and exploitation which can encourage, promote, lead to or pose a risk of physical and psychological harm to all children; (b) child abuse images permanently record the abuse of child-victims and its continued existence causes the child-victims continuing emotional and psychological harm by haunting those children throughout their lives; (c) child abuse material is often used as part of a method of grooming and seducing children into accepting and participating in intergenerational sexual activities and that a child who is reluctant to engage in any form of sexual activity with an adult or to pose for sexually explicit photographs, can be convinced and persuaded by exposure to images and depictions of other children having fun engaging and participating in such activity; (d) child abuse material is known to be used by paedophiles and child abusers for personal sexual stimulation and gratification, as well as a model for sexually abusing children and that the use of such material can desensitise the viewer to the pathology of the sexual abuse and exploitation of children so that such activities or conduct with children can become acceptable to and preferred by the viewer; (e) the effect of explicit visual depictions of children on child abusers or paedophile using such material to stimulate or whet their own sexual appetites, or on a child where the material is used as a means of seducing or breaking down the child's inhibitions to sexual abuse or exploitation, is the same whether the explicit depictions consist of photographic depictions of actual children or visual depictions produced wholly or in part by electronic, mechanical, or other means, including by computer, which are virtually indistinguishable to the unsuspecting viewer from photographic images of actual children; (f) the existence of and trade in child abuse material creates the potential for many types of harm in society and presents a clear and present danger to all children and inflames the desires of child abusers, paedophiles, and child pornographers who prey on children, thereby increasing the creation and distribution of child abuse material and the sexual abuse and exploitation of children who are victimized as a result of the existence and use of these materials; (g) the sexualisation and eroticisation of children through any form of child abuse images has a deleterious effect on all children by encouraging a societal perception of children as sexual objects and leading to further sexual abuse and exploitation of them and creates a toxic environment which affects the psychological, mental and emotional development of children and undermines the efforts of parents and families to encourage the sound mental, moral and emotional development of children; and

(h) that the growing practice of sexting by young people not only exposes children to the risk of victimisation by paedophiles and child abusers but also helps to keep alive an industry that thrives on the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, requires legislation to deter and apply appropriate penalties to children who engage in sexting and to close loopholes in existing criminal laws so that paedophiles and child abusers are prohibited from using text messaging to contact children; IT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS ACT to criminalise all computer-facilitated offences related to the maltreatment, neglect, degradation, grooming, sexual abuse and exploitation of children THE ACT CHAPTER 1 Definitions 1 For the purpose of this Act, unless the context indicates otherwise-

child means a person, real, simulated or imaginary, who is, or who is depicted, described, looks like, made to appear or represented as being, under the age of 18 years; and children has a corresponding meaning; child abuse material means any image, visual depiction or visual representation, however created, or any depiction, description or presentation of a child(a) engaged

or participating in, or appears to be engaged or participating in, or assisting another person to engage or participate in, a real or simulated sexual act or conduct, or a sexual pose or any activity or conduct characteristically associated with sex; or participating in, or appears to be engaged or participating in, a real or simulated act or conduct of a sexual nature or a sexual pose or any activity or conduct characteristically associated with sex; or

(b) in the presence of a person, real or simulated, who is engaged or

(c) showing, depicting, describing or presenting the body, or parts of the body, of a child, in a manner or in circumstances which, within context, amounts to sexual exploitation, or which violates or offends or degrades the sexual integrity or dignity of that child or children or in such a manner that it is capable of being used for the purposes of sexual exploitation or gratification or of violating, offending or degrading the sexual integrity or dignity of that child or children; and

(d)any image, visual representation or written material, whether or not it depicts or describes a child, which advocates, advertises, counsels, encourages or promotes intergenerational sex or the sexual exploitation of children; child-oriented service means a contact service and includes a content service which is specifically targeted at children; contact service means any service intended to enable people previously unacquainted with each other to make initial contact and to communicate with each other; content means any sound, text, still picture, moving picture, other audio visual representation or sensory representation and includes any combination of the preceding which is capable of being created, manipulated, stored, retrieved or communicated but excludes content contained in private communications between consumers; content service means (i) the provision of content; or

(ii) the exercise of editorial control over the content conveyed via a communications network, as defined in the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 35 of 2005), to the public or sections of the public; and create includes the use of information and communication technology to download child abuse material from the Internet or mobile cellular telephones to convert digital transmissions into visual images of child abuse depiction means any visual image, whether moving or still, and includes cartoons or animations; description means any word-based material, including written text, spoken words and songs; distribute, in relation to a film, computer game or a publication, without derogating from its ordinary meaning, includes to hand or exhibit a film, game or a publication to a child, and also the failure to take reasonable steps to prevent access thereto by a child; grooming means using information and communications technology to contact or send any message to a child, or access or attempt to access information concerning a child, or showing or displaying images or visual presentations of sexual conduct to a child, or exposing a child to such materials for the purpose encouraging, inducing, forcing, threatening, bribing or coercing that child to engage or participate in any form of

sexual conduct or to participate in the creation or production of pornography or child abuse materials intergenerational sex means an act or conduct of a sexual nature between an adult and a child; operator means any person who provides a child-oriented contact service or content service, including Internet chat-rooms. possession, in relation to a film, computer game or publication, without derogating from its ordinary meaning, includes keeping or storing in or on a computer or computer system or computer data storage medium and also having custody, control or supervision on behalf of another person; produce includes to direct, manufacture, issue, publish, or advertise; represent means to depict in any manner on or in a film, photograph, drawing, audiotape, videotape, computer game, the Internet or any other format or medium; sexting, for the purposes of this Act, means the self-creation and distribution, through a computer or any other electronic communication device, of semi-nude, nude, explicit or sexually-suggestive images or depictions of ones own body, or parts of ones own body, sexual conduct includes(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) male genitals in a state of arousal or stimulation; the undue display of genitals or of the anal region; masturbation; bestiality; sexual intercourse, whether real or simulated, including anal sexual intercourse; (f) the direct or indirect fondling or touching of the intimate parts of a body, including the breasts, with or without any object; (g) (h)
(i)

the penetration of a vagina or anus with any object; oral genital contact; or oral anal contact; and sexual act has a corresponding meaning; sexual exploitation includes the practice by which a person achieves, or seeks to achieve, sexual gratification or stimulation, financial gain or

some advancement through the abuse and exploitation of a childs sexuality. visual depiction includes undeveloped film and videotape, data stored on computer disk or by electronic means which is capable of conversion into a visual image, and data which is capable of conversion into a visual image that has been transmitted by any means, whether or not stored in a permanent format 2 A reference in this section to material that appears to describe, depict or represent a child as referred to in the definition of a child includes reference to material that contains or displays an image of a person that has been altered or manipulated to make that person appear or look like a child. CHAPTER 2 Objects of the Act 3 The objects of this Act are to criminalise all computer-facilitated offences against children and facilitate effective investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of offences related to the creation, production, possession and distribution of child abuse materials and the grooming or luring of children for the purposes of sexual abuse or exploitation by enacting all matters relating to child abuse materials and grooming into a single criminal statute specific to child pornography. CHAPTER 3 Offences related to child abuse materials, social networking and chat room services and sexting 4 (a) (b)
(c)

Any person who-

is in unlawful possession of; or creates, produces or in any way contributes to or assists in the creation or production of; imports or in any way takes steps to procure, obtain, access or view or in any way knowingly assists in, or facilitates the importation, procurement, obtaining, accessing or viewing of; or (d) knowingly makes available, exports, broadcasts or in any way distributes or causes to be made available, exported, broadcast or distributed or assists in making available, exporting, broadcasting or distributing;

child abuse material, shall be guilty of an offence. 5 Any person under the age of 18 years who-

(a) knowingly, voluntarily and without threat or coercion uses a computer or any electronic communication device to transmit an image of himself or herself showing or depicting his or her body, or parts of his or her body, which is capable of being used for the purpose of sexual exploitation or which is degrading to the sexual integrity or dignity of children; or (b) is knowingly in possession of an image showing or depicting the body, or parts of the body, of a child which is capable of being used for the purpose of sexual exploitation or which is degrading to the sexual integrity or dignity of children shall be guilty of an offence. 6 Any person who, having knowledge of the commission of any offence under sections (4) or (5), or having good reason to suspect that such an offence has been or is being committed, and does not (a) report such knowledge or suspicion as soon as possible to a law enforcement agency or a mandated authority; and (b) furnish, at the request of the law enforcement agency or mandated authority all particulars of such knowledge or suspicion, shall be guilty of an offence. 7 Any person who processes, facilitates or attempts to process or facilitate a financial transaction knowing that such a transaction will enable or facilitate access to, or the distribution or possession of, child abuse material, shall be guilty of an offence. 8 Any person who provides child-oriented services, including chatrooms, on or through mobile cellular telephones or the Internet, and does not or fails or neglects to(a) moderate such services by taking such reasonable steps as are necessary to ensure that such services are not being used by any person for the purpose of the commission of any offence against children; (b) prominently display reasonable safety messages in a language that will be clearly understood by children on all advertisements for a childoriented service, as well as in the medium used to access such child-

oriented service including, where appropriate, chat-room safety messages for chat-rooms or similar contact services; (c) provide a mechanism to enable children to report suspicious behaviour by any person in a chat-room to the service or access provider; and (d) report details of any information regarding behaviour which is indicative of the commission, or attempted commission, of any offence by any person against any child to a law enforcement agency or mandated authority shall be guilty of an offence. 9 Any Internet Service Provider who has knowledge that his or her services are being used for the purpose of hosting, maintaining, distributing, accessing or viewing child abuse material and does not or fails or neglects to(a) take such reasonable steps as are necessary to prevent access to child abuse material by any person; (b) furnish, at the request of a law enforcement agency or mandated authority particulars of users who gained or attempted to gain access to any Internet address that contains child abuse material; (c) report particulars of any person hosting, maintaining, distributing, accessing or viewing child abuse material or, in any manner, contributing to the hosting, maintaining, distributing, accessing or viewing of such material, to a law enforcement agency or mandated, and (d) take all necessary steps to preserve such evidence for purposes of investigation and prosecution by the relevant authorities shall be guilty of an offence. Extra-territorial jurisdiction 10 Any citizen or permanent resident who commits any act outside the country which would have constituted an offence under this Act had it been committed within the country, shall be guilty of the offence which would have been so constituted had it been committed inside the country.