JAMAICA FOR the first time now has legislation to deal with child pornography, placing the country firmly on the road to ratifying the last of two international conventions aimed at combating the mushrooming global problem.

Passage of the far-reaching piece of legislation in the Senate on Friday comes at a time when there are indications of a thriving market for locally made videos of children performing explicit sexual acts.

Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne said, with the advent of new technologies, material on child pornography could be distributed on the Internet and had also become accessible through cellular phones.

She was debating the bill which was passed in the Senate on Friday with seven amendments.

grave threat

Pointing to an incident where a cellular phone was used to record and distribute material showing the assault of a schoolgirl in Jamaica, Lightbourne, said this signalled a grave threat that the country's children were facing. According to Lightbourne, some vendors in the Corporate Area earned their keep by selling illegal DVDs and CDs of explicit sexual acts involving children.

"Branded as the 'Chocolate Surprise' by the vendors, one film depicted a schoolgirl performing oral sex on a schoolboy at the National Stadium," Lightbourne quoted from a newspaper article.

She said the bill was "technology-neutral" and sought to capture issues which arose in "our digital environment, which did not exist just a few years ago."

With the passage of the law, a strong call has been made for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to be equipped to deal with the growing problem of Internet child pornography.

"I believe that we must invest in a dedicated Internet child-pornography unit to detect and prevent child-pornography offences," Opposition Senator Sandrea Falconer proposed.

She also urged the administration to establish a proceeds-of-crime component in the bill to assist victims who were exploited. According to Senator Falconer, the proceeds should go towards rehabilitating victims who needed psychological or other care.

nonchalant approach

Her colleague, K.D. Knight said the Victim Support Unit should play a critical part in carrying out some of the provisions of the bill.

Knight also cautioned against a nonchalant approach in enforcing the new law, arguing that the police might be hard-pressed dealing with hard-core crimes and, as such, might not devote sufficient attention to policing this law.

"They will have to be made to understand that the breach of this statute can lead to the hard-core crimes that they have to deal with - the drug use, the drug trafficking," he said.

Knight suggested that a curriculum be introduced to help the police to understand the importance of enforcing the child-pornography law.

Persons who breach the law and are convicted could face a fine and imprisonment of up to 20 years.

Excerpts from The Child Pornography (Prevention) Act

Meaning of child in the law: Male or female under 18 years old.

Child pornography means:

a) Any visual representation that:

(i) Shows a person who is, or is depicted as being, a child and is engaged in, or is depicted as being engaged in, sexual activity;

(ii) Depicts, for sexual purpose, the genitals, breast, pubic area or anal region of a child; or

(iii) Depicts a child being subjected to torture, cruelty or physical abuse (in a sexual context).

Section 4 (1) A person commits an offence who knowingly:

(a) Produces child pornography

(b) Distributes, imports or exports child pornography

(c) Distributes any advertisement likely to be understood as conveying that the advertiser or any other person produces, distributes, imports, or exports, any child pornography; or

(d) Possesses any child pornography for the purpose of distributing, importing, or exporting it.

(2) In this Act, distributing child pornography includes selling it or publishing it in any form, and parting with possession of child pornography by exposing or offering it for acquisition by another person.