1. My friend gave me a computer disc without telling me what it contained. When I opened the files on the disc on my computer I realised they contained naked children. Have I committed an offence?

1. My friend gave me a computer disc without telling me what it contained. When I opened the files on the disc on my computer I realised they contained naked children. Have I committed an offence?

Assuming the computer CD contains child pornography, you will now be in possession of child pornography contrary to section 3(3) of the Prevention of Child Pornography Ordinance (Cap. 579) . As you have viewed the computer disc you cannot argue that you had not seen the child pornography and that you did not know or suspect the computer disc to contain child pornography. However, section 4(3) of the Ordinance provides a possible defence. The first thing you have to establish is that you did not ask your friend to provide you with child pornography. With the assumption that the computer disc was a gift from a friend and he did not tell you what the disc contained, the first requirement of the defence will likely be established. The defence under section 4(3) requires that within a reasonable time of you realising that the computer disc contains child pornography, you endeavour to destroy it. Whether you endeavoured to destroy the child pornography, for example by deleting the files or destroying the disc is a question of fact. Whether you did that within a reasonable time is also a question of fact. If you watched the disc until the end, you would not have endeavoured to destroy the child pornography within a reasonable time.