Optimising joint digital sexual violence defense mechanism, puts sexual privacy violation to an end!
2023-01-09
The Legislative Yuan is expected to pass the revised draft of the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act and the Child and Adolescent Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act on the third reading in on the 10th this month. In response to this, Senior Director Li Hongwen of the Child Welfare League Foundation, Legislator Wang Wanyu, Secretary-General Chen Yiling of ECPAT Taiwan, Executive Director Du Yingqiu of the Women’s Rescue Foundation, Deputy Executive Director Wang Shufen of The Garden of Hope Foundation, and other partners in the amendment alliance held a joint press conference. Here, they proposed several amendments to the laws and demanded the central government refine image removal mechanisms, giving victims more substantial protection and support for their sexual privacy.
Legislator Wang Wanyu expresses that although she approved the legal basis of the Executive Yuan draft of the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act adding "remove private sexual images," and for the Child and Adolescent Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act adding "compare and restrict the viewing of the same sexual images," there were still four significant points that legislation can improve these amendments.
In order to limit the distribution of illegal content, the government will notify the internet provider to remove the image and simultaneously punish users who abuse the services —for example, limiting accounts with criminal records. Secondly, under the Child and Adolescent Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, private sexual images of adults should be removed. The network operators should compare all the images on a platform and remove all identical sexual images in batches. Thirdly, the government should encourage or require operators to initiate automated content filters, encode new mechanisms to remove illegal content, and establish a reporting channel for users. Finally, internet service providers should not be punished if it fails to remove illegal images as soon as possible for justified reasons. However, its obligation to remove and improve still exists and authority may instruct it to continue to remove and make necessary improvements.
Li Hongwen, senior director of the Children's League Policy Center, pointed out that the number of hours children in Taiwan spend online has doubled in recent years to an average of 42.7 hours per week. The proportion of children who are asked by online predators to "keep in contact," "meet up alone," and "take sexually intimate naked photos" has increased compared to two years ago. Children's online security is under threat.
Li said that in 2020 when South Korea's Room N incident occurred, the Children's League launched a joint signing on the public policy platform and established a civil law amendment alliance to actively promote the amendment on the prevention and control of sexual exploitation of children. Three years later, the Children's League is happy to see the legislature adopt their civil amendment into law, increasing the criminal liability of those who shoot, distribute and broadcast children's sexual images, expanding the number of people notified, increasing the penalty for those who possess children's sexual images and punish the first offender immediately, etc. Li Hongwen stressed that in the post-pandemic era, online abduction and sexual exploitation of children in Taiwan cases are still emerging in an endless stream. After the adoption of the new law, he called on the government to strengthen various supporting mechanisms, including: 1. expanding the workforce and funds related to prevention and control of child sexual exploitation and implementing the provisions of the new law; 2. Online safety education for children should strengthen their ability to identify new criminal techniques, such as network abduction and sexual exploitation, and adopt the "situational drill" method to improve the digital literacy of children and teachers comprehensively; 3. All departments must stop passing the ball around, and the central government will set up a special unit in charge of children's network security as soon as possible.
Chen Yiling, Secretary-General of ECPAT Taiwan, put forward three reminders. First of all, internet abduction should be legislated. Second, although the law amendment has increased criminal responsibility, it needs sufficient manpower and resources for crime investigation to curb crime. Finally, we need a child-friendly judicial process so victims avoid suffering from a second offense.
Du Yingqiu, Executive Director of the Women's Rescue Foundation, pointed out that in a society where dating apps and online games are prevalent, children and adults are more likely to become victims of sex trafficking/abduction to obtain and distribute sexual images for profit. Du Yingqiu called for digital sex privacy education to reach kindergarten children and their parents early to prevent and reduce the risk of sexual abduction.
Additionally, regardless of whether it's adults or children, the most tremendous physical and mental damage comes from the fear of the widespread distribution of their private sexual images. To quickly prevent the spread of these images, network operators should take down the photos within 24 hours after being notified to improve the victim's trauma recovery and life stability.
Additionally, regardless of whether it's adults or children, the most tremendous physical and mental damage comes from the fear of the widespread distribution of their private sexual images. To quickly prevent the spread of these images, network operators should take down the photos within 24 hours after being notified to improve the victim's trauma recovery and life stability.
Wang Shufen, Deputy Executive Director of the Lixin Foundation, said that in 2022, among the 105 sexually exploited children at Lixin Foundation, 51.43% were threatened by "digital sexual violence." This can further be dissected into three categories, 79.6% of whom were "dissemination of sexual private images and personal information," followed by 42.6% of "sexual extortion," and 14.8% of whom were victims of "online sexual harassment." From this, we can see how harmful digital sex is to children. Deputy Executive Director Wang called for a mechanism to restrict and remove crime-related web pages 24 hours in advance to protect the rights and interests of children's physical and mental health; Finally, Wang Shufen, Deputy Executive Director, stressed that the definition of sexual images in the Executive Yuan version as "images or electromagnetic records objectively enough to cause sexual desire or shame" and other words is very inappropriate. It not only stigmatizes sex but also labels victims. Although the negotiation has ended, it is hoped that there will be room for further research and revision of the law in the future.