18 U.S.C. § 2252A — Certain activities relating to material constituting or containing child pornography

(a) Prohibited acts. A person who knowingly does any of the following is subject to the penalty in subsection (b): (1) mails, transports, or ships, using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting such commerce by any means, including a computer, any "child pornography"; this section does not define "child pornography". (2) Receives or distributes: (A) any child pornography using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce, or child pornography that was mailed, shipped, or transported in or affecting such commerce by any means, including a computer; or (B) any material containing child pornography using such a means or facility, or material that was mailed, shipped, or transported in or affecting such commerce by any means, including a computer. (3) Knowingly: (A) reproduces any child pornography for distribution through the mails or using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting such commerce by any means, including a computer; or (B) advertises, promotes, presents, distributes, or solicits through the mails or using such a means or facility any material or purported material in a way that shows a belief, or is intended to make another person believe, that the material or purported material is or contains: (i) an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or (ii) a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. This section does not define "obscene" or "sexually explicit conduct". (4) Either: (A) within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, on land or in a building owned, leased, used, or controlled by the United States Government, or in Indian country as defined in section 1151, knowingly sells or possesses with intent to sell child pornography; or (B) knowingly sells or possesses with intent to sell child pornography that was mailed, shipped, or transported using a means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting such commerce by any means, including a computer, or that was produced using materials so mailed, shipped, or transported. (5) Either: (A) in the places listed in paragraph (4)(A), knowingly possesses, or knowingly accesses with intent to view, a book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, computer disk, or other material containing an image of child pornography; or (B) knowingly possesses, or knowingly accesses with intent to view, such material containing an image of child pornography that was mailed, shipped, or transported using a means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting such commerce by any means, including a computer, or that was produced using materials so mailed, shipped, or transported. (6) Knowingly distributes, offers, sends, or provides to a minor a visual depiction, including a photograph, film, video, picture, or computer-generated image or picture, made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, that is or appears to be a depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, when: (A) the depiction was mailed, shipped, or transported using a means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting such commerce by any means, including a computer; (B) it was produced using materials so mailed, shipped, or transported; or (C) the distribution, offer, sending, or provision uses the mails or such a means or facility, for the purpose of inducing or persuading a minor to participate in an illegal activity. (7) Knowingly produces with intent to distribute, or distributes by any means, including a computer, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, child pornography that is an adapted or modified depiction of an identifiable minor.

(b) Penalties. (1) A person who violates, attempts, or conspires to violate paragraph (1), (2), (3), (4), or (6) of subsection (a) may be fined and imprisoned for 5 to 20 years. If the person has a prior conviction under this chapter, section 1591, chapter 71, chapter 109A, or chapter 117, or under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or a State law concerning aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward, or concerning the production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment, or transportation of child pornography, or child sex trafficking, the prison term is 15 to 40 years. (2) A person who violates, attempts, or conspires to violate subsection (a)(5) may be fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years, or both. If an image involved a prepubescent minor or a minor under 12, the maximum is 20 years. With a prior conviction under this chapter, chapter 71, chapter 109A, or chapter 117, or under the listed military or State laws, the prison term is 10 to 20 years. (3) A person who violates, attempts, or conspires to violate subsection (a)(7) may be fined or imprisoned for up to 15 years, or both.

(c) Affirmative defense. It is an affirmative defense to a charge under subsection (a)(1), (2), (3)(A), (4), or (5) that: (1)(A) the alleged child pornography was produced using actual people engaging in sexually explicit conduct and (B) each person was an adult when the material was produced; or (2) the alleged child pornography was not produced using any actual minor. The defense in paragraph (2) is unavailable in a prosecution involving child pornography described in section 2256(8)(C). A defendant may assert one of these defenses only by notifying the court and the United States, within the pretrial-motion period or another time set by the judge and never later than 14 days before trial, of the intent to assert it and the substance of expert or other specialized evidence to be used. Without timely notice, the court must bar the defense and the evidence for which notice was not properly given, unless extraordinary circumstances prevented timely compliance.

(d) Affirmative defense. For a charge under subsection (a)(5), it is an affirmative defense that the defendant possessed fewer than three images of child pornography and promptly, in good faith, without keeping or allowing anyone other than a law-enforcement agency^* to access an image or copy: (1) took reasonable steps to destroy each image; or (2) reported the matter to a law-enforcement agency and gave that agency access to each image.

(e) Admissibility of evidence. On the Government's motion, in a prosecution under this chapter or section 1466A, unless good cause is shown, the name, address, Social Security number, or other nonphysical identifying information—other than age or approximate age—of a minor depicted in child pornography may not be admitted and may be redacted from otherwise admissible evidence. At the United States' request, the jury must be instructed that it may not infer anything from the absence of that information when deciding whether the child pornography depicts an actual minor.

(f) Civil remedies. (1) A person harmed by conduct prohibited under subsection (a) or (b), or section 1466A, may bring a civil action for the relief in paragraph (2). (2) The court may award temporary, preliminary, or permanent injunctive relief; compensatory and punitive damages; and the costs of the civil action plus reasonable attorney and expert-witness fees.

(g) Child-exploitation enterprises. (1) A person who engages in a "child exploitation enterprise" may be fined and imprisoned for at least 20 years or for life. This section does not define that term. (2) A person engages in one for this section if the person violates section 1591; section 1201 when the victim is a minor; or chapter 109A involving a minor victim, chapter 110 except sections 2257 and 2257A, or chapter 117 involving a minor victim, as part of a series of felony violations consisting of at least three separate incidents involving more than one victim, and commits those offenses in concert with at least three other people.