Electronic Crimes Act, child pornography, including computer-generated depictions
Electronic Crimes Act (Cap. 4.41; Act 27 of 2009), s. 12 (Child pornography)
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 26 November 2009.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 7 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not publish, produce for publication, or possess for publication any visual depiction, including a computer-generated or realistic image, of a minor or a person who appears to be a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Publishing or producing-for-publication child pornography, including a computer-generated depiction meeting the statutory definition, carries on conviction on indictment a fine of up to XCD 50,000 or five years' imprisonment for an individual, or a fine of up to XCD 250,000 for a corporation.
Penalty structure
For an individual: a fine not exceeding XCD 50,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 5 years, or both, on conviction on indictment. For a corporation: a fine not exceeding XCD 250,000 (the figure recorded here) on conviction on indictment. No fine ceiling distinct from these two is stated for a subsequent conviction.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 7 September 2026
- Currency
- XCD
- Fixed cap
- 250,000
What it reaches
Obligation class
Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 12 makes it an offence for a person to knowingly publish child pornography through a computer system, produce it for the purpose of publication through a computer system, or possess it in a computer system or on a data storage medium for the purpose of publication, punishable on conviction on indictment by a fine of up to fifty thousand dollars or five years' imprisonment for an individual, or a fine of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a corporation.
Section 12(3) defines child pornography to include material that visually depicts a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, a person who appears to be a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, or a realistic image representing a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, a definition that does not require the depicted subject to be a real, identifiable child, so a wholly computer-generated or AI-synthesised depiction meeting it can fall within the ban.
A defence applies to publishing and possession, but not to production, where the material was for a bona fide scientific, research, medical or law enforcement purpose.
A note in the Revised Laws text records that the current section 12 was formerly section 13, the original section 12 having been repealed and sections 13 and 14 renumbered by Act 26 of 2012; whether the child-pornography definition's own wording changed at that renumbering, or was carried forward unchanged from the Act's original 2009 text, is not established in the available sources.
When LexLint raises it
generates_contentpublishes_adult_content
Read the law
Electronic Crimes Act
Chapter 4.41, Revised Laws of Saint Christopher and Nevis (2017 revision), Saint Kitts and Nevis Law Commission text, preserved on archive.org