Watching pornographic videos alone is your own business — do not send them into groups, sell “resources,” or create groups for them

Watching alone is not in the punishment clauses. Sending into a group is online dissemination; the text does not require a minimum number of sends. Detention is 10 to 15 days, with a further fine of up to 5000 yuan; when circumstances are serious, up to 2 years. Selling “resources” for money brings up to 3 years, and at the top end life imprisonment. Building a dissemination group of 30 or more people: the founder, admins, and main posters are all treated as committing a crime.

Cost

No money. Do not forward, do not save into group files, and do not become the owner or admin of such a group.

Benefit

Disseminating obscene information online brings detention for 10 to 15 days, with a further fine of up to 5000 yuan. This article does not say how many times you must send. In the same law, the item that punishes harassing others with messages expressly requires “repeated sending.” The lighter band is detention for under 5 days, or a fine of 1000 to 3000 yuan. Content involving minors is punished more heavily. Disseminating obscene articles at the “serious circumstances” level brings up to 2 years. Selling or disseminating for profit brings up to 3 years plus a fine. Within that item, serious circumstances bring 3 to 10 years; especially serious, 10 years or more or life imprisonment. Building a group mainly to disseminate obscene electronic information, with 30 or more members, is handled as a crime. Causing serious consequences is the same. The founder, admins, and main posters are all convicted of disseminating obscene articles (nationwide)

Notes

Both laws punish “dissemination”; private viewing alone is not in the clauses. Sending into a group is online dissemination. The text does not state a count, so one send is still in the clause — that is inferred from the wording. How many items make “serious circumstances” is set by judicial interpretation; this section has not verified a concrete figure.

Sources · 3

1. 全国人大常委会 (2025). 治安管理处罚法（2025 年修订，第五十条第一款第五项、第八十条）. spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202506/t20250627_699863.shtml
2. 全国人大 (2020). 刑法（根据刑法修正案（十一）修正，第三百六十三、三百六十四条）. jtgl.beijing.gov.cn/jgj/jgxx/flfg/fl/11033925…
3. 最高人民法院、最高人民检察院 (2010). 关于办理利用互联网、移动通讯终端、声讯台制作、复制、出版、贩卖、传播淫秽电子信息刑事案件具体应用法律若干问题的解释（二）（第三条）. spp.gov.cn/zdgz/201002/t20100204_25001.shtml