Decision of the Court of Cassation, III Criminal Section, No. 22265 of 13 January 2017

In this decision, the Court of Cassation stated that possessing images representing sexual abuses against children falls within the scope of Article 600 quater of the criminal code even if the images are virtual, i.e. do not represent, nor have been produced with the involvement of existent children. The Court reached these conclusions on the grounds of the relevant provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning child pornography, and the Council of Europe so-called Lanzarote Convention and Convention on Cybercrime, whose ratification by Italy is at the origin of relevant national legislation.