Swiss Criminal Code

1 Any per­son who of­fers, shows, passes on or makes ac­cess­ible to a per­son un­der the age of 16 por­no­graph­ic doc­u­ments, sound or visu­al re­cord­ings, de­pic­tions or oth­er items of a sim­il­ar nature or por­no­graph­ic per­form­ances, or broad­casts any of the same on ra­dio or tele­vi­sion shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2. Any per­son who ex­hib­its in pub­lic items or per­form­ances as de­scribed in para­graph 1 above or shows or oth­er­wise of­fers the same un­so­li­cited to oth­ers shall be li­able to a fine. Any per­son who, in ad­vance, draws the at­ten­tion of vis­it­ors to private ex­hib­i­tions or per­form­ances to their por­no­graph­ic char­ac­ter does not com­mit an of­fence.

³ Any per­son who re­cruits or causes a minor to par­ti­cip­ate in a por­no­graph­ic per­form­ance shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

4 Any per­son who pro­duces, im­ports, stores, mar­kets, ad­vert­ises, ex­hib­its, of­fers, shows, passes on or makes ac­cess­ible to oth­ers, ac­quires, or pro­cures or pos­sesses via elec­tron­ic me­dia or oth­er­wise items or per­form­ances as de­scribed in para­graph 1 above that con­tain sexu­al acts in­volving an­im­als, acts of vi­ol­ence in­volving adults or non-genu­ine sexu­al acts with minors shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty. If the items or per­form­ances con­tain genu­ine sexu­al acts with minors, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

⁵ Any per­son who con­sumes or who for his or her own con­sump­tion pro­duces, im­ports, stores, ac­quires or pro­cures or pos­sesses via elec­tron­ic me­dia or oth­er­wise items or per­form­ances as de­scribed in para­graph 1 above that con­tain sexu­al acts in­volving an­im­als, acts of vi­ol­ence in­volving adults or non-genu­ine sexu­al acts with minors shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty. If the items or per­form­ances con­tain genu­ine sexu­al acts with minors, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

⁶ In the case of­fences un­der para­graphs 4 and 5, the items shall be for­feited.

⁷ If the of­fend­er acts for fin­an­cial gain, the cus­todi­al sen­tence must be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

⁸ Minors over the age of 16 are not li­able to any pen­alty if by mu­tu­al con­sent they pro­duce items or per­form­ances as de­scribed in para­graph 1 above that in­volve each oth­er, or pos­sess or con­sume such items or per­form­ances.

⁹ Items or re­cord­ings as de­scribed in para­graphs 1–5 above are not re­garded as por­no­graph­ic if they have a cul­tur­al or sci­entif­ic value that jus­ti­fies their pro­tec­tion by law.