Kingdom of Thailand amends Criminal Code to combat child pornography

[Neighbor]

What I found interesting in the article reproduced below is that the Thai legal system is going to interpret the child pornography possession law in a manner analogous to the drug laws. My understanding is that Thais are unbelievably severe when it comes to drug crime, and this statement implies they will have a similar zero-tolerance policy for child pornography possession or distribution.

Neighbor

Chiangrai Times
Provincial and Local News for Chiangrai
Tuesday, December 8th, 2015 | Posted by Editor

http://www.chiangraitimes.com/thailands-amends-to-criminal-code-to-combat-child-pornography.html (tor-safe, ensure scripts disabled)

Thailand's Amends to Criminal Code to Combat Child Pornography

Thai Authorities Intensify Laws on Child Pornography

BANGKOK -Starting tomorrow, Thailand's Criminal Code will cover three more types of crimes – all of which are related to child pornography.

The new offenses are possession of child pornography, sharing of child pornography, and distribution of child pornography, Asia One reported.

The additions to the Criminal Code are in line with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Thailand ratified in 1992.

Surasit Sangviroatjanapat, a chief judge of the Office of the President of the Supreme Court, recently explained that the additional clauses in the Criminal Code would take effect from December 8 because the amended version of the law was promulgated in the Royal Gazette since September 8.

According to him, while it is easy for people in general to understand that the distribution of child pornography is wrong, some people may not get a clear idea of what possession of child-pornography is.

"The possession will be interpreted in the same way as the person having illicit drug in possession," Surasit said.

He said social-media users would not be convicted of child-pornography possession simply because someone else sent the offending files to them.

However, he warned that if social-media users downloaded the files into their devices, they would face legal action.

"Recording it shows the recipients also intend to possess the pornographic stuff," he explained.

Surasit said that to avoid legal trouble, people should neither keep nor forward pornographic files.

[Cherkay14]

I was about to book a month long holiday there, but me thinks that I will avoid the place now.

They are very fond of executing drug dealers, so I can see them doing the same

[VicarInATutu]

I was about to book a month long holiday there, but me thinks that I will avoid the place now.

They are very fond of executing drug dealers, so I can see them doing the same

Were you planning on taking CP along with you on your holiday? If not, you've still got nothing to worry about. Of course, there's always the issue of the DVD sellers who also sell porn and, I'm told, CP. I've often wondered if they have much new stuff that I haven't seen but it's too much of a risk to try and sneak them back into my home country so I haven't tried finding anyone who sells them.

[piñata]

This is a really old topic but I learned something from it. Apparently an agency called UNODC was involved with pushing this, according to another link/article that I read.

Not only was possession fully legal there before this happened, but now that I read this, I see it went to being dangerously illegal.