The Legislative Yuan will pass the "Criminal Law Amendment" and "Criminal Law Enforcement Law Amendment" for the third reading today (7).

(file photo)

[Reporter Chen Zhengyu/Taipei Report] In order to prevent crimes such as dissemination of sexual images and deep forgery, the Legislative Yuan will pass the "Criminal Law Amendment" on the third reading today (7th), adding the crime of "obstructing privacy and false sexual images" , if you make false images and distribute them for profit, the maximum sentence is 7 years in prison.

The ever-changing technology has led to new types of crimes, leaks of intimate sexual videos have emerged one after another, and there have even been false sexual images that use deepfakes (Deepfake) to change faces.

In this regard, the Executive Yuan passed four draft amendments including the prevention of sexual violence in March last year. The Judiciary and Legal Affairs Committee of the Legislative Yuan completed the preliminary review of the "Criminal Law Amendment Draft" in May last year. .

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Regarding the definition of sexual images, the provisions of the third reading standard include sexual organs or private parts of the body that are objectively sufficient to arouse sexual desire or shame, or images or electromagnetic records that are objectively sufficient to arouse sexual desire or shameful behaviors by touching the above-mentioned parts with the body or objects.

In terms of penalties, the third reading article stipulates that anyone who takes pictures, videos, electromagnetic records or other technological methods to record sexual images of others without their consent shall be sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 3 years.

If there is an act of dissemination, it shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 6 months but not more than 5 years; if there is an act of dissemination with the intention of making a profit, the penalty may be increased to 1/2.

The third reading clause also clearly stipulates that if a sexual image is recorded by means of rape, coercion, intimidation or other methods against the person's will, such as photography or video recording, the maximum sentence is 5 years in prison.

If there is an act of dissemination, it shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 1 to 7 years; if there is an act of dissemination with the intention of making a profit, the penalty may be increased to 1/2.

Without the consent of others, those who reproduce, distribute, broadcast, deliver, publicly display, or use other methods to view their sexual images without reason shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 5 years, and may also be fined not more than 500,000 yuan.

With regard to false images, the provision of the third reading has been updated, intending to distribute, broadcast, deliver, publicly display, or use other methods for people to view, and to use computer synthesis or other technological methods to produce false sexual images about others, which is sufficient to cause damage to Others shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 5 years, short-term detention or a fine of not more than 500,000 yuan; if they intend to make profits, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 7 years and may be fined not more than 700,000 yuan.

In addition, the Legislative Yuan also passed the third reading of the "Criminal Law Enforcement Law Amendment" today, stipulating that Article 91-1 of the "Criminal Law" amended on January 7, 2023 will come into force on July 1, 2023.

After the completion of the legislative process, Times Power legislator Wang Wanyu said in a speech that the South Korean room N incident that shocked the world ended in 2020, but Taiwan has repeatedly staged similar incidents, causing many victims to suffer physical and mental fear.

In the past, victims could only seek legal channels for misdemeanor misdemeanors such as disseminating obscene materials and damaging names. Not only is the protection insufficient, but digital sexual violence violates sexual autonomy and privacy, which should never be handled in this way.

Wang Wanyu said that this amendment clearly included several typical acts of digital sexual violence, and corrected "violating social customs" as "violating the victim's sexual privacy"; The definition of "enough to arouse sexual desire or shame" has long been controversial. "Enough to arouse shame" not only deepens the stigma of sex, but "enough to arouse sexual desire" also makes an evaluation of the victim, which is likely to cause secondary harm to the victim.

Li Guimin, a legislator of the Kuomintang, said that it took three years for such an important revision of the law, and it was regrettable that the executive team had to wait until the president or legislators were personally victimized to promote it.

New types of crimes are the future trend. If the laws and regulations cannot keep up with the times, and the administrative team cannot understand the sufferings of the people, then the laws of our country will always be backward.