Virginia statute
Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-390.3 — Child Pornography Registry; maintenance; access; required information
Current through 2026 Regular Session
Part of Chapter 23: Central Criminal Records Exchange, Code of Virginia.
Full text of Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-390.3
Statutory text current through the 2026 Regular Session. This publication reproduces the text of the Code of Virginia from the official Virginia Law Portal API published by the Virginia General Assembly's Division of Legislative Automated Systems; it is not the official Code of Virginia.
A. The Office of the Attorney General, in cooperation with the Department of State Police, shall keep and maintain a Child Pornography Registry (the Registry) to be located within the State Police, separate and apart from all other records maintained by either department. The purpose of the Registry shall be to assist the efforts of law-enforcement agencies statewide to protect their communities from repeat child pornographers and to protect children from becoming victims of criminal offenders by aiding in identifying victims and perpetrators. Criminal justice agencies, including law-enforcement agencies, may request of the State Police a search and comparison of child pornography images contained within the Registry with those images obtained by criminal justice agencies during the course of official investigations.
B. The Registry shall include hash values or other applicable identification method of all known or suspected "child pornography," as that term is defined in subsection A of § 18.2-374.1 , obtained during the course of a criminal investigation, or presented as evidence 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 the purposes of the administration of criminal justice, for victim identification, or for the protection of the public in general and children in particular. Use of the information or the images contained therein for purposes not authorized by this section is prohibited and a willful violation of this section with the intent to harass or intimidate another is a Class 6 felony.
D. The Virginia Criminal Information Network and any form or document used by the Department of State Police to disseminate information from the Registry shall provide notice that any unauthorized possession, use, or dissemination of the information or images is a crime punishable as a Class 6 felony.
Official sources
Legal terms used in this section
This reference is informational and is not legal advice.