Customs Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Customs Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Combatting Child Sexual Exploitation Legislation Amendment Act 2019 (Cth) (Act 72 of 2019).

Act 72 of 2019

The Act aims to protect children from sexual exploitation by improving the Commonwealth framework of offences relating to child abuse material, overseas child sexual abuse, forced marriage, failing to report child sexual abuse and failing to protect children from such abuse.

The Act implements a number of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) by:

• creating an offence of failure to protect a child at risk of a child sexual abuse offence
• creating an offence of failure to report a child sexual abuse offence, and
• strengthening overseas persistent child sexual abuse laws.

The other measures in the Act forms a suite of child protection measures to target child exploitation that occurs both overseas and in Australia, enhancing investigation and prosecution outcomes at the Commonwealth level. These measures:

• criminalise the possession or control of child abuse material in the form of data that has been obtained or accessed using a carriage service
• prevent certain dealings with child-like sex dolls
• criminalise the possession of child-like sex dolls
• improve the definition of forced marriage
• restrict the defence based on a valid and genuine marriage to overseas child sex offences, and
• remove references to ‘child pornography material’ in a number of Commonwealth Acts and replace with ‘child abuse material’.   

These amendments have been updated in the Point-in-Time Customs Service current to 1 October 2019. (NB: subscription required).

If you are not already a subscriber to this or other Point-in-Time Services then please contact us to find out more or to take a free trial.