Child sexual abuse material offences (Legge N. VIII, arts. 4, 10-11)
Legge N. VIII, Norme complementari in materia penale, 11 luglio 2013, artt. 4, 10-11
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 1 September 2013.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not produce, procure a minor to create, or recruit or induce a minor into a pornographic exhibition producing, material depicting a minor in real or simulated sexually explicit conduct; the ban reaches a simulated or computer-generated depiction exactly as it reaches a photograph of a real child.
- Do not distribute, disseminate, transmit, import, export, offer, sell, or possess such material for those purposes, including by telematic means, and do not acquire or knowingly possess it even outside those purposes.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Producing the material using a minor, or trading in it (art. 10 §§ 1-2): six to twelve years' imprisonment. Distributing, disseminating, transmitting, importing, exporting, offering, selling, or possessing it for those purposes, including telematically (art. 10 § 3): one to five years. Offering or transferring it without payment (art. 10 § 4): up to three years, increased where the quantity is substantial (art. 10 § 5). Attending an exhibition of it (art. 10 § 6): up to two years. Procuring or knowingly possessing it outside those cases (art. 11 § 1): up to two years, increased where the quantity is substantial (art. 11 § 2).
Penalty structure
The fine is tiered by conduct: producing the material or trading in it caps at 250,000 (art. 10 §§ 1-2); distributing, disseminating, transmitting, importing, exporting, offering, selling, or possessing it for those purposes, including telematically, caps at 50,000 (art. 10 § 3); offering or transferring it without payment caps at 15,000 (art. 10 § 4); attending an exhibition of it caps at 10,000 (art. 10 § 6); and simple procurement or knowing possession outside those cases caps at 10,000 (art. 11 § 1). Imprisonment terms are carried in criminal_exposure_note.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 250,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Vatican City State's ordinary criminal justice system (investigation and prosecution before the State's judicial organs); the statute creates no dedicated regulator.
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.
Legge N. VIII of 11 July 2013, Vatican City State's supplementary penal-law statute, entered into force on 1 September 2013 (art. 55).
Article 4(d) defines “materiale pedopornografico” (child sexual abuse material) as any representation of a minor, regardless of the medium used, involved in real or simulated explicit sexual activity, or any representation of a minor's sexual organs for predominantly sexual purposes; the definition is medium-neutral and reaches a simulated depiction on the same footing as a real one, so its text extends to a computer-generated or AI-generated depiction of a minor and not only to a photograph of a real child, even though the statute was drafted before generative AI and never uses that term.
Article 10 § 1 punishes producing such material using a minor, or recruiting or inducing a minor into a pornographic exhibition, with six to twelve years' imprisonment and a fine of 25,000 to 250,000 euro; § 2 applies the same penalty to trading in the material.
Article 10 § 3 punishes distributing, disseminating, transmitting, importing, exporting, offering, selling, or possessing such material for those purposes by any means, including telematically, with one to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 2,500 to 50,000 euro. Article 10 § 4 punishes offering or transferring the material, even without payment, with up to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,500 to 15,000 euro, increased under § 5 where the quantity is substantial.
Article 10 § 6 punishes attending a pornographic exhibition of a minor with up to two years' imprisonment and a fine up to 10,000 euro. Article 11 § 1 separately punishes procuring or knowingly possessing such material, outside the article 10 cases, with up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,500 to 10,000 euro, increased under § 2 where the quantity is substantial.
Every offence binds any person (“chiunque”), and the statute states no exception for a computer-generated or AI-generated depiction.
When LexLint raises it
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