19.2-390.3 - Child Pornography Images Registry; maintenance; access. - Virginia Statutes

§ 19.2-390.3. Child Pornography Images Registry; maintenance; access.

A. The Office of the Attorney General, in cooperation with the Department ofState Police, shall keep and maintain a Child Pornography Registry to belocated within the State Police, separate and apart from all other recordsmaintained by either department. The purpose of the Registry shall be toassist the efforts of law-enforcement agencies statewide to protect theircommunities from repeat child pornographers and to protect children frombecoming victims of criminal offenders by aiding in identifying victims andperpetrators. Criminal justice agencies, including law-enforcement agencies,may request of the State Police a search and comparison of child pornographyimages contained within the Registry with those images obtained by criminaljustice agencies during the course of official investigations.

B. The Registry shall include images of sexually explicit visual material inany form including any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motionpicture film, digital image or similar visual representation, presented asevidence and used in any conviction for any offense enumerated in §§18.2-374.1 and 18.2-374.1:1.

C. Registry information provided under this section shall be used for thepurposes of the administration of criminal justice or for the protection ofthe public in general and children in particular. Use of the information orthe images contained therein for purposes not authorized by this section isprohibited and a willful violation of this section with the intent to harassor intimidate another shall be punished as a Class 6 felony.

D. The Virginia Criminal Information Network and any form or document used bythe Department of State Police to disseminate information from the Registryshall provide notice that any unauthorized possession, use or disseminationof the information or images is a crime punishable as a Class 6 felony.

(2003, cc. 935, 938.)