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EDMONTON – It is technically possible to own legal child pornography in Canada, according to a controversial B.C. court precedent from 2001.

The explicit images have to depict sex with a consensual lover. That partner can be under 18, but not under 16. And, most importantly, the images could never be shared.

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But after a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada decision Friday, this “private use” exception for under-18 sex tapes is getting a rethink.

The case surrounded two Edmonton men, Donny Barabash, and Shane Rollison, who videotaped themselves having sex with two 14-year-old girls in 2008. Barabash was 60 and Rollison was 41 at the time of the alleged offence.

All appear to engage in this array of sexual activity on a voluntary basis

The two girls, identified as “K” and “D”, were “runaways” from an Alberta treatment centre, and met Barabash and Rollison at what K would identify as an Edmonton “”crack house.” Barabash knew D’s father, and had been her drug dealer.

At the time, it was not inherently illegal for a pair of older men to be having sex with the teenagers. Although Canada’s age of consent was boosted to 16 mere weeks after the recordings, at the time it was possible for a 14-year-old to consent to sex with a partner of any age.