Law / East Timor

Penal Code, Article 176 (Child Pornography)

Penal Code of Timor-Leste (Decree-Law No. 19/2009), Article 176

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 7 June 2009.

An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 7 September 2026.

What it requires

  • Do not use an AI system to generate, expose, or represent a minor under 17 performing real or simulated sexual activity, or to exhibit the sexual activity or sexual organs of a minor by any other means.
  • Do not produce, distribute, disseminate, import, export, offer, sell, or possess any image, video, or file containing such content, whether the depicted minor is a real person or not.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Criminal exposure note

Article 176(1) and 176(2) each carry 3 to 10 years imprisonment; no fine is stated as an alternative or in addition to imprisonment for either subarticle.

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.

Article 176(1) punishes with 3 to 10 years imprisonment any person who, for predominantly sexual purposes, uses, exposes, or represents a minor aged less than 17 years performing any sexual activity, whether real or simulated, or by any other means exhibits the sexual activity or sexual organs of a minor.

Article 176(2) applies the same penalty to producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling, or possessing any medium of communication, instrument, document, or record for those purposes or with the aim of disseminating such acts.

The article's own text does not require the depicted minor to be a real, identifiable person, so its "whether real or simulated" and "by any other means" language reaches a computer-generated or AI-synthesised depiction of a child in the same terms as one derived from a real photograph.

When LexLint raises it

  • generates_content

Read the law

official Penal Code text, Timor-Leste's own English translation as reproduced by the WIPO Lex legislation record

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