18-year old convicted on child pornography charge
06/09/2002
The conviction today of an Auckland teenage is a warning that age alone will not necessarily protect users of child pornography from convictions.
The 18 year old was convicted in the North Shore District Court on one representative charge of advertising and distributing child pornography on the Internet. He had traded images, including those of children aged between 4 and 10 being sexually abused by adults, with 265 people.
The Court imposed a $500 fine and ordered him to pay $130 costs.
The General Manager of the Department’s Gaming and Censorship Regulation Unit, Keith Manch, said that the Department looks at alternatives to prosecution when young offenders are involved. However, in some cases, because of the extent of the offending or the extreme nature of the images, court action will be taken.
In this case the young man advertised and ran a sophisticated automated software system. People who responded to his advertising could download from and trade with his collection without him having to be at his computer.
A Department officer found him in an Internet chat relay channel dedicated to trading child pornography. he was using the nickname “Gangr3nus” and advertising that he was willing to trade pictures of pre-teenage children.
The officer used his system and downloaded images and stories from directories he had called “pre” and “bestpre”.
An investigation identified him and tracked him to an Auckland address. A search warrant was executed and he was questioned. He admitted that the images were from his computer and that he had run the fileserver trading child pornography for two years.
“Trading child pornography is seldom intended to make money,” Mr Manch said. “It is about offenders constantly expanding their collections and searching for increasing extreme images.
“Tragically, to create each image a child is sexually abused. Collecting the images creates a ‘market’ that incites more abuse, while the continued existence of the images perpetuates the abuse for the victims, haunting them in future years.
“Taking action against child pornography is about helping protect children from abuse. Convictions, and publicity about them, are intended as a deterrent to the offender and any others considering using child pornography.
“It is irrelevant that the victims are seldom in New Zealand. To allow child pornography here, is to encourage child abuse in other countries.”
Background
Since 1996 the Department has successfully prosecuted six 19-year-olds, three 18-year-olds and one 17-year-old. Two 16-year-olds had been charged but were referred for family group conferences. In total, it has prosecuted 101 child pornography offenders.
Four hundred and sixty child pornography cases have been investigated, with the average age of those investigated being 32. The youngest was 14 and the oldest 68. All were men.
The Films Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 prohibits objectionable material, including child pornography.
Penalties under the Act are:
- Possession of objectionable material, fines of up to $2,000 per charge (section 131)
- Distributing or making copies for distribution, fines of up to $5,000 per charge (section 123)
- An individual knowing that an image was objectionable, fines of up to $20,000 per charge or up to 1 year in prison per charge (section 124)
- A organisation knowing that an image was objectionable, fines of up to $50,000 per charge (section 124)
Media contact:
Keith Manch Phone 04 495 9449
General Manager Gaming and Censorship Regulation Cellular 027 445 6420
Steve O’Brien Phone 04 495 9371
Censorship Manager
Vincent Cholewa Phone 04 495 9350
Communications Advisor Cellular 025 272 4270
