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
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