Govt moots 20 years' jail, RM50k fine for paedophiliac livestreamers

 

Those who participate in sexual livestreams involving minors may be slapped with a 20-year jail sentence under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said.

They may also face up to RM50,000 in fines if they are found guilty. 

“This will include perpetrators who direct the abuse or receive money from the livestreams.

“It also applies to people who leave comments on these livestreams, such as telling the children what to do and what to wear,” Azalina (above) told reporters at a press conference at Parliament today.

The minister explained that this is one of the amendments to the act that will be tabled in Parliament on March 27.

The other offence to be added, Azalina said, is sexual extortion, which entails the use of inappropriate images of a minor as leverage for blackmail. Offenders face up to 10 years in jail with no fine.

She also said that minors who extort other minors with inappropriate images are also considered offenders.

These revisions are part of the first phase of the amendments of laws involving child victims - an initiative that was announced by Azalina two weeks prior.

The first phase is also expected to include amendments to the Evidence of Child Witness Act 2007, such as changing the child witness’ age requirement from “16 years and below” to “18 years and below”.

Further, judges may be granted discretion to bar questions from defence lawyers during a trial if they were deemed inappropriate or aggressive towards the child.

In the same phase, the government will be looking into adding more special courts for child cases as normal courts were “too frightening for children”.

“We need more child-friendly courts, we only have five at the moment. 

“It’s not fair that these children have to travel far and spend money to come to court.

“We hope to build 20 special courts during the first phase and add 20 more during the second phase,” the Pengerang MP added. 

The second phase is expected to be implemented in the next parliamentary session after further engagement with stakeholders. - Mkini