Get the facts

Objectives

This module aims to educate you on the following:

• What the law says about sexual abuse images
• The criminal justice system: from arrest to possible imprisonment
• Potential consequences to you and your family

This section is here to educate you on the facts.

You need to ensure that you understand the law, so that you know what is right and wrong (even if you believe otherwise) and that you understand that being caught by the police will come with many consequences, not just the possibility of going to prison.

The term ‘indecent images of a children’ means a sexual image of a child (anyone under the age of 18). It includes:

• nude or partially clothed children
• children sexually posing
• self-generated images by children (‘selfies’)
• images depicting children engaging in both penetrative and non-penetrative sexual activity

This definition applies to still images, videos and pseudo-photographs (an image which appears to be a photograph and that may have been created by a computer).

‘Indecent images of children’ is the legal term for these types of images. On this website we refer to them as ‘sexual images of children’. In addition, the term ‘sexual image’ is a collective term which comprises of sexual images, videos and pseudo-photographs of children.