Now Reading
Govt To Propose Legislative Reforms On Sexual Offences Against Children And Child Witnesses

Govt To Propose Legislative Reforms On Sexual Offences Against Children And Child Witnesses

These proposed amendments to the Sexual Offences Against Children (SOAC) Act 2017 and the Evidence of Child Witness Act 2007 will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat Monday (March 27).

Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest stories and updates.


The Malaysian government will propose new legislative reforms in relation to sexual offences against children and child witnesses, said minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

One example would be the proposal to make it less intimidating for children to testify as witnesses in court.

According to Azalina, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), this can be done by enabling pre-recording of their entire testimony without having to attend the trial.

The government will also be proposing law changes to stop lawyers from “badgering” children in court with improper questions.

When speaking to reporters at a press conference in Parliament on Thursday (March 23), Azalina also added that live sex streaming and the online sextortion of children will be new offences that will be covered with the tabling of new laws in Parliament on Monday.

As reported by The Star, Azalina said:

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 We are proposing to amend the term child pornography, which is an outdated term, to child sexual abuse material. We are also adding as new offences the live-streaming of child sexual abuse and sexual extortion of children.

Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said

She also shared that there will be changes made to the terminology of the phrase “child pornography” which will now be known as “child sexual abuse materials” as the previous term “does not reflect the exploitative and abusive nature of sexualised images of children, ie. voluntariness implied in the word pornography, but children have no capacity to give consent.”

As for online sextortion, Azalina said this will be covered under the new Section 15B of the Act.

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.

Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said

Under the proposed Section 15B, the offender may face a maximum 10-year jail term upon conviction.

The government will propose a new law to enable the courts to order sexual offenders to pay compensation to their child victims.

The Malay Mail reported Azalina saying:

The other situation is compensation not given when the child gives evidence, goes to court. There are challenges of travelling costs, income, counselling, medical costs, so who pays for all these? You can go to the Social Welfare Department (JKM) for some assistance, but what we are trying to do now is to make for the courts to give an order for compensation from the perpetrator to pay.

Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said

Currently, the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) allows for the Criminal Court to order the convicted persons to pay compensation to the victim, on the request of the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP).

If this amendment goes through, Azalina said it will give a mandate to the Court to order compensation in all sexual offences against children cases, without request from the DPP.

These three proposed amendments to the Sexual Offences Against Children (SOAC) Act 2017 and the Evidence of Child Witness Act 2007 will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat Monday (March 27).


Share your thoughts with us via TRP’s FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

Get more stories like this to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter.

© 2024 The Rakyat Post. All Rights Reserved. Owned by 3rd Wave Media Sdn Bhd