KUALA LUMPUR: The Sexual Offences Against Children (Amendment) Bill 2023, which aims to provide clearer and comprehensive protection for children, was tabled for the first time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
It was tabled by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
The bill, among other things, provides a prison sentence of not more than 20 years and a fine of up to RM50,000 for offences involving sexual performance by children.
The offences include making or causing children to perform sexual acts; participating, either as a participant or spectator in a sexual performance; advertising, promoting or facilitating sexual performances; as well as receiving any benefit, including money from the sexual performance.
The bill defines ‘sexual performance’ as any overt sexual act performed in front of one or more viewers, including recorded or transmitted in whole or in part, by any means including electronic, mechanical, digital, optical or magnetic, or a combination of any one of them.
Apart from that, for matters involving sexual extortion of children, such as threatening to perform sexual activities, threatening them to share any image whether in visual, audio or written form, the individual concerned can be sentenced to a prison term not exceeding 10 years, if convicted.
The bill also states the payment of compensation to child victims will be determined by the court based on the injuries suffered by the victims.
Azalina also tabled the Evidence of Child Witness (Amendment) Bill 2023, which aims to improve the protection of child witnesses by increasing the age of child witnesses from 16 years to 18 years.
It aims to include a provision that allows the court to prohibit any inappropriate questions to child witnesses during special hearings such as those that are misleading or confusing, insulting, intimidating, humiliating, disturbing, annoying, offensive, oppressive or unnecessarily repetitive. – BERNAMA
