Entertainer Micky Huang (黃子佼) was found in possession of sex videos including minors, in a case that has provoked a public outcry. A legislator proposed that sexual exploitation be made punishable by harsher penalties, including death sentences.
The legislator also urged punishments and rehabilitative measures such as compulsory treatment for people who buy child porn.
Another legislator argued that people caught in possession of adult sex videos made without victims’ consent, as prescribed in Article 319-1 and 319-2 of the Criminal Code, should be sentenced as well.
The sentence for forced sexual intercourse is imprisonment of three to 10 years, or seven to 15 years if the victim is under the age of 14, the Criminal Code states. Death sentences or lifetime imprisonment can only be imposed for rape and murder.
If death sentences are also imposed for possession, production and distribution of child pornography, sexual offenders would be more likely to rape and kill a child, because the sentence is so similar.
Some proposed that the possession of adult sexual videos, as stated in Article 319-1 and 319-2, should be punishable. Despite being for the common good, this has serious problems in terms of enforceability.
Under the current law, a person’s criminal responsibility is evaluated based on the principle of Zumutbarkeit or reasonableness, the ability to define whether a person who has committed a crime is guilty.
The law would find it difficult to regulate behaviors such as watching a pornographic video, as opposed to producing or distributing it.
That is why the Copyright Act only punishes distribution and reproduction, while watching pirated videos is not governed by the law.
I agree with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai’s (洪孟楷) proposal, that the law should be amended to extend the maximum statute of limitations for sexual assault of a minor, as minors often find it hard to speak about a sexual assault right after it happened.
Overseas studies have shown that it takes 23.9 years on average for victims to first admit that they had been sexually assaulted during childhood.
Japan amended its laws in June last year to extend the maximum statute of limitations for sexual offenses by five years, including non-consensual sexual intercourse (from 10 to 15 years) and non-consensual obscenity (from seven to 12 years).
Under the amendments, the limitation does not begin for a victim until they turn 18. In Germany, the limitation does not begin until a victim turns 30, the German Criminal Code states.
Article 91-1 of the Criminal Code in Taiwan describes conditions in which an offender may be given a compulsory treatment.
Our lawmakers should propose amendments, in which offenders committing crimes under the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒少性剝削防制條例) or under Article 319-1 and 319-2 of the Criminal Code would receive compulsory treatment.
In addition, these sexual offenses should be involved in the conditions stated in the Article 101-1 of Code of Criminal Procedure so that a person suspected of committing one of the offenses could be detained.
The thing is that we need to prevent these videos from being posted without victims’ consent as soon as possible. Whether to draft a digital intermediary service act as an equivalent to the EU’s Digital Services Act is another problem to be solved.
Chao Hsuey-wen is an assistant professor and holds a doctorate in law from Fu Jen Catholic University.
Translated by Hsieh Yi-ching
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS