Oral Reply to Parliamentary Question on Online Child Pornography by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Question:

Mr Christopher de Souza: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs whether he can provide an update on the review of Singapore's laws deterring online child pornography and what will be done to restrict, deter and punish access to and the hosting of child pornography websites in Singapore.

Answer:

1. Internet content providers including web-hosting services are class-licensed under the Broadcasting Act. They are required to comply with the Internet Code of Practice and ensure that prohibited material, such as child sexual abuse content, is not hosted on their websites.

2. If child sexual abuse websites are verified to be hosted in Singapore, the IMDA can: (i) direct the Internet content providers to take down the content; (ii) issue directions to the Internet Service Providers to block access to the websites; and, of course (iii) suspend or cancel the class licences of the Internet content providers.

3. Where there is child sexual abuse content, the Police will also investigate, as appropriate.

4. I mentioned yesterday that there is a major review of the Penal Code. We are looking at whether there should be dedicated laws to deal with activities related to child pornography – from the making of pornographic material involving children, to possession and distribution of such material, and also whether such laws should carry higher penalties to send a stronger deterrent message.

5. Those review proposals will be tabled for public consultation later this year.