Explainer: How the Criminal Law Reform Bill aims to fight crimes of the Internet age

SINGAPORE — Think twice before sending out an unsolicited photo of your genitals. Under a set of proposed new laws, that act will soon be considered a crime.

The Criminal Law Reform Bill was introduced in Parliament on Monday (Feb 11), proposing amendments to Singapore’s Penal Code to ensure that it remains relevant in the Internet age and for years to come.

One section of the proposal relates to “emerging crime trends” that have been made possible — and become increasingly common — with technology, such as the voyeuristic recording of people in intimate moments and the distribution of someone’s intimate photos without his or her consent.

TODAY takes a closer look at how the proposed new laws aim to penalise emerging crime trends.

TREND #1: VOYEURISTIC ACTIVITY

There is a bustling market online for "upskirt" videos and photos but the current law neither acknowledges nor is adequate to address this phenomenon, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Law (MinLaw) noted.

Instead, a patchwork of existing laws, such as those relating to insulting the modesty of a woman and the making of obscene films, have to be relied on to deal with various offences.

Read also

• An alarming trend: Sites that steal photos from Instagram accounts to cater to voyeurs

• Victims of voyeur sites can file criminal charges and seek compensation, say lawyers

The proposed new laws will make observing or recording of a person — in circumstances where the person could reasonably expect privacy — a specific offence.

In such cases, the person in the recording is presumed not to have given consent to be recorded.

It will be up to the accused to prove that he had the person’s consent to make that recording.

The proposed laws will also criminalise the production, possession and distribution of voyeuristic recordings.

TREND #2: "REVENGE PORNOGRAPHY"

The Internet and smartphones have made it extremely easy for images to be created, uploaded and downloaded — but very difficult for such images to be removed.

This has become a problem for people who have found themselves the victims of hackers or malicious parties — sometimes vengeful ex-partners — who have gotten hold of their intimate images and uploaded them online.

This phenomenon is widely known as “revenge porn”, but MHA and MinLaw said they are of the view that this term is neither appropriate nor accurate.

“For the law to condemn a private and intimate image as obscene (as it currently does under Section 292(a) of the Penal Code) or ‘pornography’ may further insult and humiliate the person depicted in those images,” they said.

The Penal Code currently does not have a specific offence that criminalises the distribution of nude, semi-nude, or other sexual images without consent.

The proposed new laws will make distributing or threatening to distribute an intimate photo or video an offence.

They will also criminalise the possession and/or accessing of an intimate image or recording when the possession and/or access:

• was without the consent of the person depicted
• will or is likely to cause humiliation, distress or alarm to the person depicted.

TREND #3: FLASHING

The existing law can be used to punish people who appear nude in public, or in private but in view of the public.

But there is no law to penalise those who send photos of their genitals to others, whether or not the recipients may want those images.

The proposed new laws will criminalise “cyber-flashing” to cover situations where images of genitalia are sent to recipients without their consent, and with the intention to cause humiliation, distress or alarm.

TREND #4: FRAUD

The proposed laws aim to address sophisticated deceptive schemes in which wrongful gain or loss was intended, without an identifiable victim being deceived.

One example is the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate that occurred in the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2008.

Bankers from various banks had shared information with each other, via instant messaging systems, so they could collude to fix the rate at certain levels.

This had an impact on the interest rates that bank customers paid on loans such as their home mortgages and student loans.

In this case, the MHA and MinLaw noted, it was difficult to identify any specific person who suffered loss but it was possible to say that the manipulators had benefited.

The proposed new laws will create a new offence of fraud, which focuses on the dishonest or fraudulent intent to deceive a victim, rather than the effect of the deception of the victim.

While the prescribed maximum penalty for this offence is high (up to 20 years of imprisonment, a fine, or both), this is to address single charges of fraud that may involve serious betrayal of trust, multiple victims and/or substantial loss, the ministries said.

OTHER MAJOR CHANGES

These proposed changes come after the Penal Code Review Committee completed a two-year review of existing laws and made their recommendations to the Government.

Some laws will be updated to enhance protection for vulnerable victims, while outmoded offences will be removed.

For example, those who commit offences against vulnerable victims, namely children, persons with mental or physical disabilities and domestic workers, may be punished with up to twice the maximum punishments provided for the offence.

Among the other proposals are for the repeal of immunity for marital rape and decriminalisation of attempted suicide.

The Criminal Law Reform Bill is expected to be debated in Parliament in May.