Senate Passes Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act

The Senate, on Friday (May 1), passed the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act to provide stronger protection for children in the digital space, and enable more effective investigation and prosecution of cyber offences by law enforcement.

The legislation introduces harsher punishments for those who target children, including imprisonment of up to 20 years where an offence is committed against an individual under 18 years, through access to any computer programme or data.

Clause Four makes a corresponding amendment to Section Eight, providing that the penalty may include imprisonment for a term not exceeding 20 years, where the offence, namely fraud or forgery, is committed against an individual under age 18.

Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, who piloted the Bill through the Upper House, said that the increased penalties “communicate to the society at large, and indeed to the judiciary, that… cybercrimes committed against children must be treated more seriously and demonstrably so, and so they must carry a harsher penalty.”

The Bill also addresses the non-consensual sharing of intimate content in the digital space, replacing the narrow wording of ‘sending to another person’, found in Section 9 (1) of the principal Act, with the broader concept of ‘publishing.’

“So, you’re threatening someone, you’re publishing anything that is obscene, that this is an offence under Section 9, and it’s therefore a crime that can be reported to the police,” Senator Johnson Smith said.

She noted that the Bill makes it clear that a person under 18 is incapable of giving consent for the purposes of sharing intimate images.

Clause Six of the Bill strengthens Jamaica’s ability to disrupt organised cybercrimes by criminalising the tools and infrastructure used to facilitate illicit activities, including the intentional manufacture, sale, importation, distribution, disclosure, or provision of any computer, key, data, or device.

It also criminalises the receipt or possession of such items with the intent that they are used to commit those offences.

Opposition Senator, Ramon Small Ferguson, welcomed the amendments, noting that they “strike at the heart of issues that are relevant to our everyday lives.”