Protecting Children from Sexual Crimes: An Overview of the Sexual Offences against Children Act 2017 (Act 792)

Nazli, Ismail@Nawang and Noor ‘Ashikin, Hamid and Nur Amani, Pauzai (2017) Protecting Children from Sexual Crimes: An Overview of the Sexual Offences against Children Act 2017 (Act 792). In: International Conference On Child And Humanitarians Law, 8-9 October 2017, UniSZA.

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Abstract

The recently published Digital News Report 2017 by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has discovered the rise of instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, Line and many others for sharing and distributing of news in the cyber world. Out of these services, WhatsApp was found to have been the preferred platform in Malaysia with over half of the surveyed respondents in the country (51 percent) used the application for news. The scenario has undoubtedly raised a serious cause for concern regarding the spread of fake news among WhatsApp users. In relation to this, the Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Jailani Johari, has on 27 April 2017 reprimanded WhatsApp admins that as gatekeepers they may be exposed to legal actions including imprisonment, should they fail to control and prevent the spread of false information that could jeopardise national security among members of WhatsApp groups that they administer. Nonetheless, uncertainty arises as to the legality of this move as it seems to hold WhatsApp admins accountable not only for their own posts, but also for any false information that are disseminated by other members in their groups. As such, this article attempts to analyse relevant statutory provisions related to the proposed move and the potential liability of WhatsApp admins for illegal postings made by other group members.

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