The next tranche of reforms cracking down on child sex offenders in South Australia
have commenced this week.
Earlier this year, State Parliament passed a series of reforms aimed at closing
loopholes in the laws related to the possession of child exploitation material and
child-like sex dolls.
As part of the reforms, when considering a defendant’s bail application, courts are
now required to specifically take into account the broader harm to children in the
community caused by fuelling demand for child exploitation material and the abuse
of children for production of that material.
Heinous crimes involving exploitation of children in commercial sexual services have
also been retitled to refer to ‘performing commercial sexual acts’ rather than
‘services’, to better reflect that the child being made to perform the sexual acts is
being victimised and exploited, and that this is not a ‘service’ to anyone.
A further reform which will come into effect at the start of next year will lower
sentence discounts available for pleading guilty to possession of child exploitation
material or child-like sex dolls.
These changes are just a few of the many that this Government has made to more
appropriately deal with the sickening sexual abuse of children. The reforms include
increasing the penalties for a range of child sexual abuse offences, and changing the
heading of the offence of maintaining an ‘unlawful sexual relationship with a child’ to
the ‘sexual abuse of a child’, more appropriately reflecting the exploitative nature of
the offence.
As put by Kyam Maher
It’s important that our laws keep pace with community expectations and, quite
frankly, the laws as they stood did not live up to our community’s standards in my
view.
Ensuring courts take into account how the possession and distribution of child
exploitation material has a broader impact on the community will ensure it is not perceived – by either the judiciary or the broader community – somehow as a
victimless type of offending.
It will help send a clear reminder that there are victims to these crimes, and that the
dissemination of this material is an appalling act.
It will also ensure that the courts treat these offenders with the severity they deserve.
