Government now getting feedback from public on the proposed Cybercrime law

The government is now getting feedback from members of the public on the proposed Cybercrime law which deals with issues like child pornography, identity theft and service providers giving computer data of subscribers under investigation for such offences after an order by a judge or a magistrate.

In the proposed bill, any person found to be in possession of, or sharing child pornography can be fined upto $50,000 or face a prison sentence of upto 15 years or both. Companies found guilty of this will be fined upto $200,000.

According to the proposed law, child pornography means content that depicts, presents or represents a child engaged in sexual intercourse or sexually explicit conduct, a person appearing to be a child in sexual intercourse or an image, animation, text material or video of a child engaged in sexual intercourse or sexually explicit conduct that includes any audio, visual or text material.

The proposed law also covers identity theft where any person involved in this unlawful activity can be fined upto $10,000 or face upto 5 years imprisonment or both. Companies found guilty of identity theft will be fined upto $50,000.

The bill also says that a judge or magistrate may order a service provider to submit subscriber information on a person under investigation for such offences.

The service provider would then have to provide the subscriber’s identity, postal or geographic address, telephone and other access numbers, billing and payment information.

It also provides for a judge or magistrate issuing a warrant requiring a service provider to collect or record traffic data in real-time and provide only the computer traffic data to an authorised officer.

The Cybercrime Bill is expected to be tabled in the March Parliament sitting.

The Bill will be enforced by the Republic of the Fiji Military Forces, the Fiji Police Force and the Fiji Corrections Service.

Feedback to the bill is expected to close next Friday.