Sexting Laws in South Australia: The Under-17 Threshold and No Peer Defence

In South Australia, a sexual image of a person under 17 is child exploitation material under Part 3 Division 11A of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935, and unlike New South Wales, Victoria or Tasmania, South Australia has no statutory defence at all for a young person who produces, sends or keeps such an image, even of themselves or a same-age peer.

The Age Threshold and the Offences

South Australia's Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 places its child exploitation material offences in Part 3 Division 11A, sections 62 to 63D. Section 62 defines child exploitation material as pornographic material depicting, or appearing to depict, a child under, or apparently under, 17 years of age. That figure, 17, is South Australia's own number. Every neighbouring jurisdiction in this comparison uses 16 or 18, and this dossier's national anchor sets out the full state-by-state table; South Australia's under-17 line is confirmed directly from the current Act text, not assumed.

Two offences carry most of the weight for a sexting scenario. Section 63 makes it a crime to knowingly produce or disseminate child exploitation material, with a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment. Section 63A makes it a crime to knowingly possess it, with a maximum of 12 years. A related pair of offences, sections 63AA and 63AAB, cover production, dissemination and possession of a child-like sex doll, also capped at 15 years, and section 63AB covers three separate website-related offences (hosting or administering a site used to deal with the material, encouraging its use, or helping someone evade detection), each carrying a maximum of 10 years. Section 63B, a distinct offence covering procuring a child to commit an indecent act or sending a sexually charged communication to a child, carries a maximum of 12 years in the ordinary case and 15 years where aggravated.

Sending or Keeping Your Own Image as a Teenager

Division 11A was read in full, section by section, specifically looking for a youth, peer or self-image exception to sections 63 and 63A. None exists. The only defence written into the possession offence, section 63A(2), applies where the material came to the person unsolicited and they took reasonable steps to get rid of it once they realised what it was; that defence is available to a defendant of any age and does not turn on the sender and recipient being close in age. South Australia's Division 11A also sets out five general exemptions, covering legal, medical and scientific purposes, law enforcement duties, child protection and legal advice, artistic merit, and material in a publication, film or computer game classified as anything other than Refused Classification, and none of those is youth-specific either.

There is one provision worth flagging precisely because it is easy to mistake for a youth sexting defence and it is not one. Section 63B(4) and (4a) give a defendant a defence to a procuring or communication charge under section 63B where the other person was 16 or older and the defendant was under 17 at the time, or reasonably believed the other person was 17 or older. That defence is written to apply only to charges under section 63B; its own text lists the specific subsections it covers and none of them is section 63, 63A, 63AA, 63AAB or 63AB. In practical terms, a South Australian teenager charged with producing, sending or keeping a sexual image of themselves or a peer under 17 cannot point to section 63B as a defence, because the charge they would actually face sits outside where that defence reaches.

On the current text of the Act, a minor who takes or keeps a sexual image of themselves, or of a same-age peer under 17, is exposed to sections 63 and 63A in the same way an adult offender would be. No South Australian charging guideline or diversion policy document describing how police or the Director of Public Prosecutions actually handle a peer sexting case involving minors was located in researching this page, so the practical effect of that legal exposure, including whether prosecutorial or police discretion is applied in a given case, cannot be stated here and should not be assumed.

Forwarding a Peer's Image to Others

The same absence of a defence applies to forwarding. Section 63's dissemination limb covers sending material on, not only producing it in the first place, and there is no exception in Division 11A for forwarding an image received from a peer of a similar age. A South Australian teenager who received an image from a same-age peer and passed it on to someone else has no statutory defence to a section 63 charge over that act of forwarding, on the same basis set out above.

Registration If Convicted

South Australia's sex offender register is governed by the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006. Its Schedule 1 lists sections 63, 63AA, 63A, 63AAB, and the relevant limbs of 63AB and 63B as Class 2 offences. For an adult, being sentenced for a Class 2 offence is enough on its own to become a registrable offender under section 6(1)(a). For a young person, section 6(3)(a) is explicit: a person is not a registrable offender merely because they committed a Class 1 or Class 2 offence while a child. Registration is not automatic for a minor.

That is not the end of it, though. Section 9(1)(b) gives a court the power to order a young person to comply with the Act's reporting requirements anyway, but only on the prosecution's application, and only where the court is satisfied under section 9(3) that the person poses a risk to the safety or well-being of a child. It does not need to identify a specific child at risk. The result is a genuine case-by-case judicial decision: a South Australian minor convicted under sections 63 or 63A is not automatically registered, but a court can still order registration where the prosecution applies and satisfies the risk test.

Adult Sharing and the Separate Non-Consensual Image Regime

Sexting between consenting adults is lawful in South Australia. A different, separate law applies once an image is shared without the consent of the adult it depicts. South Australia's non-consensual intimate image offences sit in the Summary Offences Act 1953, not the Criminal Law Consolidation Act, and turn on consent rather than the age of the person depicted; the distribution offence for a real or altered image is at section 26C. That regime, including the newer offences covering wholly AI-generated images, is covered in full on deepfake and intimate image laws in Australia, which this page defers to rather than repeating.

If Police Want to Talk to Your Teenager

What happens if police want to question a young person, including whether they have to answer, whether a parent or support person needs to be present, and the right to a lawyer, is covered on Miranda rights in Australia, since those processes are not specific to this topic. For the national picture across all eight Australian states and territories, including the full age-threshold comparison table and which jurisdictions do and do not have a peer defence, see sexting laws in Australia. A young person or family facing an actual charge can get free advice from the Legal Services Commission of South Australia. See also the everyday law hub for related topics.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the age threshold for child exploitation material in South Australia?

Under 17. Section 62 of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 defines child exploitation material by reference to a child under, or apparently under, 17 years of age. That makes South Australia the outlier among Australian jurisdictions, most of which set the line at 16 or 18.

Is there a defence for teenagers who sext a same-age peer in South Australia?

No. Division 11A of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 contains no youth, peer or self-image defence to the production, dissemination or possession offences in sections 63 and 63A. The only defence attached to possession is a general unsolicited-receipt defence available to a person of any age.

Does section 63B protect a teenager from a sexting charge?

No. Section 63B(4) and (4a) provide an age-proximity defence, but it applies only to a section 63B charge, procuring a child to commit an indecent act or a sexually charged communication. It does not apply to and cannot be raised against a charge under section 63 or 63A, which are the sections a sexting scenario would typically fall under.

Will a South Australian teenager be placed on the sex offender register for a sexting offence?

Not automatically. Section 6(3)(a) of the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006 says a person is not a registrable offender merely for committing a Class 1 or Class 2 offence while a child. A court can still order registration under section 9 if the prosecution applies and the court is satisfied the person poses a risk to a child's safety.

What are the maximum penalties for the South Australian child exploitation material offences?

Production or dissemination under section 63 carries a maximum of 15 years imprisonment. Possession under section 63A carries a maximum of 12 years. The related website offences under section 63AB each carry a maximum of 10 years.

Is adult, consensual sexting legal in South Australia?

Yes. These offences turn on the age of the person depicted, not on the age of the sender. Sharing images without the consent of an adult they depict is a separate offence under the Summary Offences Act 1953, covered on this site's deepfake and intimate image laws page.