Malaysia Proposes Revision Of Communication Law, Children Under 18 Years Of Violating Can Be Imprisoned

JAKARTA - The Malaysian government has submitted a Revision of the Communication and Multimedia Law (RUU) by including a prison sentence of up to five years or a RM500,000 fine for children under the age of 18 who violate it.

Quoting Bernama, Monday, December 2, the bill seeks to amend the 1998 Communications and Multimedia Law (Law 588).

Malaysia's Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has proposed for the first reading on the People's Council today, Monday, December 2.

Meanwhile, on the same day, a second reading will be carried out for a parliamentary meeting.

According to the draft bill distributed in Parliament, Klausul 91(c) proposed the insertion of a new subdivision into Article 233 of the Law, which stipulates higher and different penalties for violations of children under the age of 18, which are classified as arrestable violations.

The new points submitted also contain the threat of an additional fine of RM5,000 within the time limit of the day after being convicted.

Article 91(a)(i) of the Communications and Multimedia Bill proposes a replacement for the word obscene' with very obscene' in Article 233(1), while Article 91(a)(ii) aims to introduce new violations under the same subdivision regarding acts of fraud or deception against anyone.

Meanwhile, the Sub-Palas 91(d) of the 2024 Communication and Multimedia Bill (Amendasi) proposed the inclusion of Sub-Division (4)(a) and (4)(b) to overcome the misuse of network or application services to send obscene communication for commercial purposes.

Under Subdivision (4)(a), the use of the service to send obscene communication for commercial purposes to anyone will constitute a violation. Article (4)(b) stipulates that allowing the use of an application network or service under the control of a person for activities described in paragraph (a) is a violation of the law.

If found guilty, violators can be fined up to RM1 million, jailed for up to five years, or both, with an additional fine of RM10,000 for each day or part of the day the offense continues after being found guilty, "the draft of the bill reads.

In addition, the bill's filing includes a Klausul 92 which introduces Article 233A to prohibit individuals from sending, causing them to be sent, or allowing unrequested delivery of commercial electronic messages.