Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics - Protection of Privacy and Reputation on Platforms such as Pornhub - April 12, 2021

Criminal Code Offences

The type of conduct identified in the media reports is prohibited by specific and general offences in the Criminal Code. In relation to child pornography, the Criminal Code(section 163.1) prohibits all forms of making, distributing, transmitting, making available, accessing, selling, advertising, exporting/importing as well as possession for these purposes. It also prohibits simple possession of child pornography. Child pornography is broadly defined to include all formats (visual, written and audio) that depict young persons under the age of 18 years being sexually abused or their sexual organs for a sexual purpose.

Voyeurism is an offence (section 162), including making, publishing, selling and advertising voyeuristic recordings. The non-consensual distribution of intimate images (section 162.1), and obscenity (section 163) and hate propaganda (sections 318 and 319) are also prohibited. These offences may apply to any person in Canada as well as a Canadian company that knowingly commits the offence.

The Criminal Code also authorizes courts to order the seizure and forfeiture of specific material (for example, obscene material, child pornography, voyeuristic recordings, hate propaganda) and its removal from computer systems in Canada (sections 164, 164.1, and 320.1). Offences of general application may also apply to the conduct, depending on the facts of the case, including the assault provisions (sections 265- 268), the sexual assault provisions (sections 271- 273), child-specific sexual offences (sections 151 to 153), incest (section 155), bestiality (section 160), uttering threats (section 264.1), the human trafficking offences (sections 279.01- 279.04) and extortion (section 346).

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