While digital technologies have significantly enhanced communication and information sharing, they have also created new opportunities for misuse, particularly for children, who are especially vulnerable to online abuse and exploitation. These risks are often difficult for parents and guardians to detect or prevent in a timely manner.
To address these concerns, Thailand has drafted an amendment to the Criminal Code to introduce new provisions targeting offenses against children committed via online platforms. The objective is to close existing legal gaps and to provide more robust protections for children in the digital environment.
The draft amendment focuses primarily on addressing online offenses against children and enhancing legal protections for children. The draft amendment proposed changes regarding the following issues:
- Jurisdiction and media misuse
- Expanding Thailand’s jurisdiction to cover sexual and liberty-related offenses committed against children outside the country.
- Adding offenses for misuse of media, including recording, publishing, or transmitting text, images, or sounds for unlawful or exploitative purposes.
- Offenses involving child exploitation
- Adding penalties for persuading, luring, or enticing children to engage in sexual or indecent conduct.
- Imposing harsher penalties for aggravated cases relating to child exploitation that result in serious harm or death.
- Adding penalties for sending or forwarding inappropriate sexual content to children with exploitative intent.
- Adding penalties for using threats involving sexual conduct to pressure or coerce victims.
- Removing ignorance of a child’s age as a possible defense for certain offenses (e.g., luring children or sending inappropriate content) when the child is under 13 years old.
- Special protections for vulnerable individuals
- Imposing harsher penalties for offenses committed against parents, persons under legal guardianship or parental authority, or individuals unable to protect themselves.
- Adding penalties to offenses such as luring children, sending inappropriate content, and cases involving serious harm or death.
- Child pornography
- Increasing liability for possession and distribution of child pornography through online platforms.
- Harassment and cyberbullying
- Adding a new offense for harassment causing unreasonable distress, interference with daily life, or fear for personal safety, liberty, health, reputation, property, or rights of the victim or their family members, including cases involving serious harm or death.
- Adding liability for harassment and bullying conducted through telecommunications or computer systems.
- Imposing stricter penalties for harassment and bullying conducted via public technologies, telecom devices, or online social networks.
- Imposing harsher penalties when the harassment or bullying is committed against parents or individuals under legal guardianship or parental authority.
- Offense settlement and probation
- Designating certain offenses as eligible to be settled by compromise, including (1) persuading, luring, or enticing children to engage in sexual or indecent conduct; (2) sending or forwarding inappropriate sexual content to children; and (3) harassment offenses under the newly introduced provisions described above.
- Allowing courts to impose probation under specific conditions in applicable cases.
- Misuse of digital systems
- Increasing penalties for using unauthorized access to devices, data, or systems to commit offenses particularly in connection with (1) harassment causing serious harm or death or (2) cyberbullying via telecom systems or public social networks
The draft amendment aims to strengthen protections for children against online exploitation by expanding jurisdiction; introducing new offenses related to digital media misuse and child grooming; increasing penalties for harassment, cyberbullying, and child pornography; and allowing certain cases to be settled through compromise or probation. These changes reflect a broader effort to bring Thailand’s legal environment and child protection framework more in line with international standards, ensuring a more comprehensive and modern approach to addressing digital-age risks faced by children.
