This Friday, August 7, Brazil enacted Statute #15,487/2026 to strengthen efforts to combat sexual violence against children and adolescents, particularly in the digital environment.

The new Statute introduces a series of amendments to Brazilian legislation – including the Statute for Children and Adolescents (ECA), the Brazilian Criminal Code, the Brazilian Code of Criminal Procedure, the Heinous Crimes Act, and Organized Crime Act – creating new legal definitions, criminal procedures, and investigative measures aimed at preventing, detecting, and prosecuting such offenses.

Statute #15,487/2026 replaces the term “child pornography” with “sexual violence against children or adolescents”, consistent with international standards that recognize such material as a record of sexual abuse and exploitation rather than consensual pornographic content. The Statute also establishes a legal definition of “child or adolescent sexual violence material or content” as any representation of real or fictitious subjects, including photographs, videos, digital images, other audiovisual recordings, or AI-generated content, that depicts explicit sexual activity, nudity, or other sexually suggestive situations.

A key provision creates a so-called “virtual patrol” mechanism, allowing law enforcement and prosecutors to use software tools to identify and collect files related to child sexual violence offenses in publicly accessible digital environments without prior judicial authorization.

More importantly, the Statute allows law enforcement and prosecutors to request connection logs and user registration data directly from service providers without prior judicial authorization, in emergency situations when a child or adolescent identified during a virtual patrol operation faces an ongoing offense, a risk to life, or a risk of physical harm. In such cases, the measure remains subject to subsequent judicial review.

Other relevant changes include:

• an increase in penalties for the production, sale, and distribution of child sexual violence material, which now range from 4 to 10 years’ imprisonment and fines;
• the classification of displaying, transmitting, or facilitating the transmission of such content, including through live streaming, as equivalent to producing child sexual violence material;
• the imposition of criminal liability on administrators, moderators, and other individuals responsible for websites, forums, chats, or other digital environments used to store, share, or produce child sexual violence material, punishable by 4 to 10 years’ imprisonment and fines;
• a one-third sentence enhancement for the dissemination of child sexual violence material across multiple digital platforms;
• an increase in penalties for acquiring, possessing, storing, or requesting child sexual violence material, which now range from 3 to 6 years’ imprisonment and fines;
• the classification of accessing or viewing child sexual violence material through digital means for one's own sexual gratification or that of a third party as equivalent to possession or storage offenses; and
• expanded sentence-enhancement provisions for the grooming of children under the age of 14 through the use of artificial intelligence, deepfakes, fake profiles, anonymization tools, or digital platforms.

Our team closely monitors legislative developments related to digital regulation and online safety in Brazil and is available to assist with assessing the impact of the new legislation. For more information, please contact us at techregulationbr@lickslegal.com.

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