2007 CCA | Draft CCA as of April 2013 |
Article 14 Whoever commits any of the following offences shall be subjected to imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than one hundred thousand baht or both:
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-None- | Option 1 Relevant provisions in the Penal Code can be amended to cover child pornography with the involvement of computer, i.e., by disseminating it via internet and the penalty rates can be set higher. This option should be considered instead of including the offence in the draft CCA.
Option 2 The offence can be included in the draft CCA as follows; “Article ... Whoever has in possession of computer data related to child pornography shall be subjected to imprisonment for not more than six years or a fine of not more than two hundred thousand baht or both: The previous paragraph shall not be enforceable to competent officers who have the material simply for the benefit of holding an offender accountable as per the Act or other applicable laws. |
It could be said that the provision is a new invention on “pornography” in the Thai jurisprudence as it treats having in possession of child pornography as an offence. Meanwhile, the Penal Code provides very loose definition of the term “pornography” and it is not clear if it intends to protect which group of people.
The drafting committee makes it flexible that if this provision is not included in the new CCA, a similar amendment can be made to the Penal Code.
Nevertheless, it sounds scary that there is an attempt to treat the act of “having in possession” an offence regardless if other elements of crime such as the “importation”, or “dissemination” or “being used for commercial profit” can be established or not. In other word, by simply having in possession of any file akin to child pornography, one can instantly be held liable and it does not matter “how it has been obtained” and “for what purpose” the materials will be used. It is quite concerned that an offence can take place when one has in possession of such a material and the provision imposes quite severe penalty including imprisonment of up to six years.
