KUALA LUMPUR: Live sex streaming and the online sextortion of children are new offences that will be covered with the tabling of new laws in Parliament, says Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of law and institutional reforms said that these laws will be tabled this coming Monday (March 29).
She added that these laws will be introduced through amendments of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017.
"Child grooming was introduced as an offence in 2017 but online sexual abuse involving children is on the rise. We are proposing to amend the term child pornography, which is an outdated term, to child sexual abuse material," said Azalina.
"We are also adding as new offences the live-streaming of child sexual abuse and sexual extortion of children," she added when speaking to reporters at a press conference in Parliament on Thursday (March 23).
Under the new Section 15A, she said those convicted of directly participating, organising, promoting, directing the abuse or receiving money for live streaming sex involving children can face a 20-year maximum jail term, a maximum RM50,000 fine or both.
As for online sextortion, Azalina said this will be covered under the new Section 15B of the Act
She said there are instances where a child is duped by sexual predators into giving inappropriate images of themselves online, which are then used to blackmail or extort money from the victim.
"This happens even in schools when boyfriends and girlfriends break up and photographs are exposed with threats made that they will tell the whole world.
"This will be an offence and we will send you to jail and we don't care how old you are," she said.
Under the proposed Section 15B, a person who uses a sexual image of a child as leverage to blackmail and threaten a child for more images or video, pay money or to have sex, may face a maximum 10-year jail term upon conviction.
She said the amendments will also include new Section 26A and Section 26B which empowers the court to order a convicted perpetrator to pay compensation to the victim.
The proposed compensation, Azalina said, was for counseling and rehabilitation of the victim.
Meanwhile, also to be amended is the Evidence of Child Witness Act 2007, Azalina said.
She said that Section 2 of the Act will be amended where the definition with regard to the age of a child witness will be increased from 16 years old to 18.
She said that a new Section 6B will be added to empower the judge to prevent defence lawyers from badgering child witnesses with insulting, belittling or inappropriate questions.
Under the new Section 6A, Azalina said that the relevant investigation authorities will be allowed to pre-record evidence from child victims.
Although a child is currently allowed to give evidence via video, she said the proposed amendment will allow pre-recorded evidence to be admissible.
"The extraction of evidence will be done when the child is examined as the first point of contact so the child won't have to attend court," she said.
She said that court proceedings can be an intimidating experience for a child who may have to re-live their traumatic experience including facing their perpetrator while in court.
She said the amendments were the first phase of reforms as there are also plans to amend the Evidence Act to allow for the admissibility of uncorroborated child evidence involving sexual offences.
Earlier in Dewan Rakyat, Azalina informed the House that over 3,000 suspects were charged with various sexual offences against children since 2018.
"Since 2018 until January 2023, a total of 5,519 cases were reported under the Act.
"Of the 5.519 cases, a total of 4,713 (85.4%) cases were resolved with 3,060 cases (55.4%) charged in court," she said when replying to a question raised by Young Syefura Othman (PH-Bentong) during Minister’s Question Time (MQT).
Young Syefura asked what was being done to speed up prosecution cases involving sexually abused children.
She claimed that a recent report stated that about 100,000 children in the country were exposed to some form of online sexual abuse.
