Germany believes decriminalising possession of child pornography may be a good thing. Here’s why

If some online reports are to be believed, Germany has decriminalised the possession of child pornography. Because of such reports, several people took to social media, voicing their concerns and condemning the move.

A pro-paedophile activist group called Krumme-13, or K13, a “self-help” organisation for “paedosexuals” celebrated the reversal of the law as a step forward for their sexual minority group.

An American web magazine, The Federalist, claimed German lawmakers argued the decriminalisation gave “necessary flexibility” to deal with the “large portion of juvenile offenders,” and also help protect parents and teachers who discover child pornography on the devices of any young person to pass them on to the relevant authorities.

But has Germany actually decriminalised child pornography possession?

The answer is no. Germany’s parliament, Deutscher Bundestag, has instead voted to lower the criminal penalties for possession of child pornography.

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The parliament has amended a section of the German Criminal Code to significantly shorten prison sentences for “dissemination, acquisition, and possession of child pornographic content.”    

The government in Germany introduced a bill according to which “possession and acquisition of child pornographic content should in future be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment."

Making the amendments, the government cited feedback and demands from practice for a tightening of the penalty range in 2021 as justification.

“The lack of the possibility of discontinuing proceedings or of settling them by means of a penal order has shown that in proceedings involving a suspicion of an offence at the lower end of the penalty range, this means that a reaction appropriate to the offence and guilt can no longer be guaranteed in every individual case,” it further said.

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“The offences regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes,” it said.

The reduced penalty applied to all child pornography possession with no exceptions.

When Germany criminalised possession of child sex abuse material

In 2021, Germany for the first time, made possession of child sex abuse material a felony when Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democratic Party implemented a mandatory one-year minimum sentence for the offence.

The German parliament, in 2021, had voted to remove the possession of child sexual materials as a criminal offence.

Federal officials who supported the bill believe that decriminalisation protects parents and teachers who download the material for the purpose of informing the police.

“Such cases have occurred particularly frequently among parents and teachers of older children or young people who found child pornography on their devices 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 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.”