Mass. Gen. Laws » Part IV Title I Chapter 272
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 29A (2026)

Posing or exhibiting child in state of nudity or sexual conduct; punishment

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 29A. (a) Whoever, either with knowledge that a person is a child under eighteen years of age or while in possession of such facts that he should have reason to know that such person is a child under eighteen years of age, and with lascivious intent, hires, coerces, solicits or entices, employs, procures, uses, causes, encourages, or knowingly permits such child to pose or be exhibited in a state of nudity, for the purpose of representation or reproduction in any visual material, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not less than ten nor more than twenty years, or by a fine of not less than ten thousand nor more than fifty thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(b) Whoever, either with knowledge that a person is a child under eighteen years of age or while in possession of such facts that he should have reason to know that such person is a child under eighteen years of age, hires, coerces, solicits or entices, employs, procures, uses, causes, encourages, or knowingly permits such child to participate or engage in any act that depicts, describes, or represents sexual conduct for the purpose of representation or reproduction in any visual material, or to engage in any live performance involving sexual conduct, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not less than ten nor more than twenty years, or by a fine of not less than ten thousand nor more than fifty thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(c) In a prosecution under this section, a minor shall be deemed incapable of consenting to any conduct of the defendant for which said defendant is being prosecuted.

(d) For the purposes of this section, the determination whether the person in any visual material prohibited hereunder is under eighteen years of age may be made by the personal testimony of such person, by the testimony of a person who produced, processed, published, printed or manufactured such visual material that the child therein was known to him to be under eighteen years of age, or by expert medical testimony as to the age of the person based upon the person's physical appearance, by inspection of the visual material, or by any other method authorized by any general or special law or by any applicable rule of evidence.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 41 cases (5 in the last 5 years), 1982–2026 · leading case: Commonwealth v. Oakes, 551 N.E.2d 910 (Mass. 1990).
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Commonwealth v. Oakes, 551 N.E.2d 910 (Mass. 1990). · cites it 8× “602 (1988), reversing the defendant's conviction for violation of G.L.c. 272, § 29A (1986 ed.), [1] because of constitutional overbreadth under the First Amendment, the Legislature amended G.”
Commonwealth v. Hall, 952 N.E.2d 951 (Mass. App. Ct. 2011). · cites it 9× “265, § 26C; posing a child in a state of nudity, G. L. c. 272, § 29A; and possession of child pornography, G.”
Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Inc. v. Operation Rescue, 550 N.E.2d 1361 (Mass. 1990). · cites it 4× “for purpose of visual representation or reproduction in any book, magazine, pamphlet, *723 motion picture film, photograph or picture.”
Commonwealth v. Dockham, 542 N.E.2d 591 (Mass. 1989). · cites it 4× “t testimony on the issue of emotional trauma to the child if he testified in open court; (4) the introduction of fresh complaint testimony; (5) the admission of expert testimony on the general characteristics of sexually abused children; (6) the exclusion of an opinion that the…”
Commonwealth v. Bean, 761 N.E.2d 501 (Mass. 2002). · cites it 4× “Bean was convicted of posing a fifteen year old girl for photographs with her breast exposed in violation of G. L. c. 272, § 29A (a). 1 On appeal, he claims that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction or, in the alternative, that a conviction based on the facts…”
Commonwealth v. Oakes, 518 N.E.2d 836 (Mass. 1988). · cites it 6× “A jury found the defendant guilty of violating G.L.c. 272, § 29A (1986 ed.), which, among other things, makes a crime of knowingly permitting a child under eighteen years of age "to pose or be exhibited in a state of nudity .”
Commonwealth v. Dingle, 898 N.E.2d 1 (Mass. App. Ct. 2008). · cites it 5× “, those depicting nudity as well as those depicting sexual conduct) were included in a single section of the statute: *281 G. L. c. 272, § 29A, as inserted by St. 1977, c.”
Commonwealth v. Casbohm, 116 N.E.3d 633 (Mass. App. Ct. 2018). · cites it 5× “265, § 23A (indictment 1); posing and photographing a child under the age of eighteen in a state of nudity, "for the purpose of representation or reproduction in any visual material," G. L. c. 272, § 29A ( a ) (indictment 6); and posing and photographing a child under the age of…”
Commonwealth v. Sullivan, 972 N.E.2d 476 (Mass. App. Ct. 2012). · cites it 3× “Bean involved a prosecution under G. L. c. 272, § 29A, which makes it a crime for any person, acting with lascivious intent, to pose a child, knowing he or she is under eighteen years of age, in a state of nudity.”
Commonwealth v. Bundy, 989 N.E.2d 496 (Mass. 2013). · cites it 5× “On November 4, 2010, a Superior Court jury convicted the defendant, Jeffery Bundy, on an amended indictment charging him with posing or exhibiting a child in a state of sexual conduct, G. L. c. 272, § 29A (b). 2 The case was tried under the “live performance” prong of the…”
Commonwealth v. Ericson, 10 N.E.3d 127 (Mass. App. Ct. 2014). · cites it 4× “An understanding of the charges requires one to keep in mind that G. L. c. 272, § 29A( z), defines the offense of soliciting, enticing, or encouraging a child to pose in a state of nudity to include a defendant’s (1) actual or chargeable knowledge of the targeted person’s age as…”
Commonwealth v. Molina, 71 N.E.3d 117 (Mass. 2017). · cites it 2× “As this quoted language indicates, the statute combined the four means of committing the crime — dissemination of visual material depicting child nudity, dissemination of visual material depicting child sexual acts, and possession with the intent to disseminate both types of…”
Show all 41 citing cases →
— Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 29A(a) — 6 cases
Commonwealth v. Ericson, 10 N.E.3d 127 (Mass. App. Ct. 2014). “An understanding of the charges requires one to keep in mind that G. L. c. 272, § 29A( z), defines the offense of soliciting, enticing, or encouraging a child to pose in a state of nudity to include a defendant’s (1) actual or chargeable knowledge of the targeted person’s age as…”
Commonwealth v. Lawrence, 860 N.E.2d 45 (Mass. App. Ct. 2007).
Commonwealth v. Gichel, 718 N.E.2d 1262 (Mass. App. Ct. 1999).
Commonwealth v. Wright, 799 N.E.2d 1263 (Mass. App. Ct. 2003).
Commonwealth v. Mienkowski (Mass. App. Ct. 2017).
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