E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 While the majority of international and regional instruments require criminalization of a wide range of actions associated with child pornography, including “production”, “offering”, “making available”, “distribution”, “transmission”, “possession” and in some instances also knowingly “obtaining access” to child pornography, national laws show some diversity with respect to which of these acts are included. As described in the Cybercrime Study, the production and distribution of child pornography are criminalized by around 90 per cent of national legislative provisions reviewed; in addition, over 60 per cent of countries criminalized “possession”, with almost 40 per cent including provisions on “accessing” child pornography.271 One issue surrounding the criminalization of child sexual abuse material relates to its inadvertent possession. Some States have resolved this by broadly interpreting possession to include any exercise of dominion or control over images, including such contained in digital Internet “cache” files. Policymakers in the United States and South Africa have also noted, for instance, that punishment of non-contact offenders in these countries is based on the concern that the distribution and viewing of child sexual abuse material may incite more contact abuse.272 One of the most prevalent distinctions made by national legal systems is that between contact and non-contact offences. National laws against child sexual abuse material are primarily grounded in the suffering caused by the original sexual abuse, and so tend to mainly focus on contact offences. A number of countries, however, give weight to both contact and non-contact offenses, taking into consideration not only the original abuse, but also its implications in the form of the suffering of victims from the potentially infinite dissemination of abuse images. Finland and Slovakia,273 for example, have some of the most restrictive laws in this regard.274 Some States have also successfully prosecuting citizens for contact sexual abuse offences conducted through live web streaming of child sexual abuse material, holding that directing live commercial sexual exploitation via the Internet is equal to rape of a child.275 Some States may have no laws that specifically criminalize child sexual abuse material.276 Countries without specific laws may nonetheless criminalize the production, distribution or possession of this type of material under broader __________________ 271 272 273 274 275 276 42 UNODC, 2013. Pp. 100-104; ECPAT, 2008. Pp. 81-88. Ibid. A/HRC/12/23. Paragraphs 56-57. Arguably these countries may treat as criminal acts of possession, the watching of online child sexual abuse material because the material is temporarily stored in the computers’ cache of viewers; see ECPAT, 2008. Pp. 8388; UNODC, 2013. P. 103. EUROPOL, 2013. A/HRC/12/23. Paragraph 53. V.14-03040