1. Short title, extent and commencement .—(1) This Act may be called the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
(2) It extends to the whole of India, 1***.
(3) It shall come into force on such date 2 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint. 1[(da) “child pornography” means any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child which include photograph, video, digital or computer generated image indistinguishable from an actual child and image created, adapted, or modified, but appear to depict a child;]
(e) “domestic relationship ” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause ( f) of section 2 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (43 of 2005);
(f) “penetrative sexual assault” has the same meaning as assigned to it in section 3;
(g) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(h) “religious institution ” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1988 (41 of 1988).
(i) “sexual assault” has the same meaning as assigned to it in section 7;
(j) “sexual harassment” has the same meaning as assigned to it in section 11;
(k) “shared household” means a household where the person charged with the offence lives or has lived at any time in a domestic relationship with the child;
(l) “Special Court” means a court designated as such under section 28;
(m) “Special Public Prosecutor” means a Public Prosecutor appointed under section 32.
(2) The words and expressions used herein and not defined but defined in the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) , the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) , 2[the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2 of 2016)] and the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000) shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the said Codes or the Acts.