German lawmakers have not voted to decriminalise possessing child pornography, contrary to widely viewed social media posts. Instead, they have backed reducing the minimum jail terms for possessing, distributing or acquiring such material.
A spokesperson said Germany's parliament had backed reducing the minimum jail sentence for distributing child pornography from one year to six months. For possessing or acquiring, minimum terms have been cut from one year to three months. The maximum term for such offences remains 10 years.
In June 2021, Germany tightened laws around child pornography, raising the minimum sentence for distribution, acquisition and possession to one year. But feedback from the courts and public prosecutor’s office highlighted problems with the law change. With a one-year minimum sentence there was no way someone “who had not acted out of paedo-criminal energy” could avoid jail, said the justice ministry spokesperson--for example, when a mother finds child pornography on her offspring’s phone and forwards it to other parents or teachers to alert them. By downgrading the lesser offences to a misdemeanour, it allows for shorter sentences to be imposed or for the case to be dropped, added the spokesperson.