· Australia unveiled plans on Monday to make social media companies obtain parental consent for users under the age of 16, with multimillion dollar fines for failing to · It is illegal to have sexual intercourse with someone age That includes things you may not think of as intercourse. It is illegal to have sexual contact or interourse with Missing: australia · There are generally no laws about when a young person can start dating another young person, but there are lots of laws around doing sexual acts with another person
Legal age: teenagers and the law | Raising Children Network
PDF version [ KB ]. Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills.
Telecommunications Interception and Access Act TIA amendment. Date introduced: 30 March House: House of Representatives Portfolio: Attorney-General Commencement: The day after Royal Assent. When Bills have been passed and have received Royal Assent, they become Acts, which can be found at the Federal Register of Legislation website.
All hyperlinks in this Bills Digest are correct as at May The purpose of the Bill is to introduce an offence to criminalise acts done using a carriage minors and online dating laws australia [1] to prepare or plan to minors and online dating laws australia harm to, minors and online dating laws australia, procure, or engage in sexual activity with, a person under the age of This expressly includes a person misrepresenting their age online as part of a plan to cause harm to another person under 16 years of age.
Schedule 1 amends the Criminal Code Act Cth Criminal Code to insert a new offence for the preparation or planning to cause harm to, engage in sexual activity with, or procure for sexual activity, minors and online dating laws australia, a person under the age of 16, using a carriage service, minors and online dating laws australia. Schedule 2 contains consequential amendments. It amends the Crimes Act Cth and the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act Cth TIA Act to ensure existing law enforcement powers available for Commonwealth child sex-related offences are available for the new offence.
It is recognised that sex offenders use the internet to identify and contact minors for sexual exploitation, mostly minors and online dating laws australia monitoring online profiles and web messaging services. Over recent years, an increasing number of adolescents and children have access to smartphone and tablets, allowing:. their susceptibility to become a cyber victim to increase, as parental control may not be present This Bill follows three attempts by Senator Nick Xenophon to criminalise an adult misrepresenting their age to a minor for specified purposes.
Newman, a year-old man, pretended to be an year-old man named Brandon. InNewman was sentenced to life imprisonment with a year non-parole period.
It took police eleven days to track Newman down, minors and online dating laws australia. When they found him, he was logged on to his computer as Brandon Kane, chatting to a fourteen year old girl in Western Australia.
Police also found a stash of child pornography on his computer, and discovered he had already pursued many other young girls overseas. Senator Xenophon acknowledged the difficulties which are further discussed by the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee in its comments on the current Bill in creating the law to ensure there are no unintended consequences from its enforcement:.
This [] Bill creates offences specifically aimed at the circumstances—an adult lying to a minor about their age to facilitate a meeting or to make themselves seem 'more approachable'—that need to be addressed, minors and online dating laws australia. The internet is impossible to pin down, minors and online dating laws australia, constantly evolving and growing.
The pace of technological growth means children are almost always much more comfortable with online communication than their parents: what we still see as new and different is as essential to them as breathing. New forms of communication mean we need new laws to protect our children. In cyberspace, we can't stand by their side as they explore the world. We can't always set rules and curfews, because our kids can be sitting safe in their rooms even while they're in danger.
This Bill is an attempt to address some of the techniques used by online predators, so that we can put an additional safeguard in place for our children. The Bills were considered by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee which concluded either that the Bill not be passed or that further consultation be conducted. The Bill has been referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs for inquiry and report by 13 June Details of the inquiry are at the inquiry homepage.
The Committee has received five submissions on the Bill and key issues raised in these submissions are indicated below. The Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills raised some issues relating to the reversal of the legal burden of proof in the proposed offence:. The offence provision is proposed to be inserted minors and online dating laws australia Subdivision F of Division of the Criminal Code Act As such, the presumption in existing section This provision minors and online dating laws australia that if a physical element of a relevant offence consists of a person using a carriage service to engage in particular conduct and the prosecution proves beyond reasonable doubt that the person engaged in that conduct, it is presumed, unless the person proves to the contrary, that the person used a carriage service to engage in that conduct.
A defendant bears a legal burden of proof in relation to this matter. As the reversal of the burden of proof undermines the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, the committee expects minors and online dating laws australia to be a full justification each time the burden is reversed, with the rights of people affected being the paramount consideration The statement of compatibility gives a justification for imposing a presumption which reverses the legal burden of proof:.
The purpose of this presumption is to address problems encountered by law enforcement agencies in proving beyond reasonable doubt that a carriage service was used to engage in the relevant criminal conduct. Often evidence that a carriage service was used to engage in the criminal conduct is entirely circumstantial, consisting of evidence, for example, that the defendant's computer had chat logs or social media profile information saved on the hard drive, that the computer was connected to the internet, and that records show the computer accessed particular websites that suggest an association with the material saved on the hard drive The committee notes that the presumption is intended to address problems regarding evidence that a carriage service was used, and notes that this appears to provide a justification as to why the evidential burden of proof needs to be reversed, but not necessarily why the legal burden of proof needs to be reversed.
However, the committee also notes that the relevant requirement that the conduct engaged in uses a carriage service is a jurisdictional requirement that does not relate to the substance of the offence, minors and online dating laws australia. Notwithstanding these concerns, the Committee concluded that no response from the Minister was required.
Senator Xenophon of the NXT party strongly supports the Bill. The Law Council of Australia supports appropriate measures to ensure that the internet is not used to perpetuate crimes against children.
Given this difficulty, there is a risk that investigations or prosecutions may focus upon the character of the accused rather than the character of the actions the accused has undertaken. Existing There is thus considerable overlap with sexual predation crimes in the Code, though again it may be that a broader range of preparatory conduct is captured by new The submission concluded that the Bill should not be passed.
Queensland Family and Child Commission and the Tasmanian Sexual Assault Support Service SASShave submitted that they are supportive of the Bill. The Explanatory Memorandum states that the Bill will have no financial impact on Government revenue. The Government considers that the Bill is compatible. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights considers that the Bill does not raise human rights concerns, minors and online dating laws australia.
The previous Bills introduced by Senator Xenophon sought to create a criminal offence relating to online communications with children. Section 3 of the Criminal Code Amendment Misrepresentation of Age to a Minor Bill stated:. the object of this Act is to make it a criminal offence for a person over 18 years of age the sender to intentionally misrepresent their age in online communications with a person they reasonably believe to be under 18 years of age the recipient :, minors and online dating laws australia.
a for the purpose of encouraging the recipient to physically meet with the sender or any other person ; or. b with the intention of committing an offence. The significant difference is that the offence in section Item 2 in Schedule 1 is the key amendment in the Bill. It would insert new section The Explanatory Memorandum states that this example in no way limits the type of conduct that can be a preparatory act, whether or not that preparatory act involves any kind of misrepresentation.
These offences are themselves preparatory in nature. A child does not have to be harmed before the penalties up to minors and online dating laws australia years in prison for procurement and 12 years in prison for grooming apply.
As it is the use of the carriage service that constitutes the criminal conduct in procurement and grooming offences, the child does not have to receive the communication, minors and online dating laws australia, or indeed be a child, as the sender only needs to have the belief that the recipient is under 16 years. The Explanatory Memorandum for this Bill states that proposed new section The offence will capture preparatory conduct, irrespective of whether a recipient child is communicated with or identified.
An example of conduct that does not involve communication with an identified child is the creation of a social media profile by a predatory adult with the intention of using that profile to establish an online relationship with a child as a preparatory step to harming or engaging in sexual activity with a child. Because the offence does not require a specific recipient to be identified or communicated with, technical provisions that set out liability and evidentiary requirements in section Neither are defences of mistake of age set out in section For example, a preparatory act may include a person using social media to lie about their age, profession or an event in an attempt to lure a child to a meeting for the purposes of causing a child harm or procuring or engaging in sexual activity with a child.
The focus on the conduct of the adult will ensure the offence applies where a law enforcement officer assumes the identity of a fictitious child to interact with predatory adults over the internet and social media. The predatory adult will be engaging in criminal conduct where he or she has an intention to cause harm to, procure or engage in sexual activity with the fictitious child.
Section Proposed new subparagraph Physical harm or harm to a person's mental health, whether temporary or permanent. However, it does minors and online dating laws australia include being subjected to any force or impact that is within the limits of what is acceptable as incidental to social interaction or to life in the community. Unconsciousness, pain, disfigurement, infection with a disease and any physical contact with a person that the person might reasonably object to in the circumstances whether or not the person was aware of it at the time.
Significant psychological harm, but does not include mere ordinary emotional reactions such as those of only distress, grief, fear or anger. The Explanatory Memorandum explains that acts done in preparation of causing or planning to cause harm to a child includes circumstances where there is an intent to harm the child, but no evidence of an intent to engage in sexual activity:.
The offence captures conduct preparatory to a broader range of harm than currently exists and recognises that not all preparatory conduct is linked with an intention to engage in sexual activity with the child. The offence is not meant to capture trivial physical contact or ordinary emotional reactions and allows for judgements to be made about what conduct is acceptable or incidental to social interaction or life in the community.
This is problematic however because the Bill in its current form could lead to a high number of persons charged with the offence due to police discretion being exercised, and deciding that the conduct was considered outside the realm of trivial physical contact or ordinary emotional reactions. It is then left to the prosecution to consider the reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution.
An example of preparing or planning online sexual activity with a child would be an offender who creates an online gaming profile as part of a plan to masturbate in front of a web cam while a child watches through the online game.
As a telecommunications offence, Category A geographical jurisdiction, as set out in section Item 3 of Schedule 2 of the Bill would amend the TIA Act to provide minors and online dating laws australia the proposed offence in new section The effect would be that law enforcement agencies could apply for a telecommunications service warrant where the information obtained under the warrant would be likely to assist in connection with the investigation by the agency of the proposed offence.
In everyday terms, this definition includes the internet, minors and online dating laws australia, text messages, email, telephone, faxes, radio and TV.
com website, 29 March Explanatory MemorandumCriminal Code Amendment Protecting Minors Online Billp. Criminal Code amendment Misrepresentation of Age to a Minor Bill ; Criminal Code Amendment Misrepresentation of Age to a Minor Bill and Criminal Code Amendment Misrepresentation of Age to a Minor Bill an amended version of the earlier Bill.
Senate Legal and Constitutional Minors and online dating laws australia Legislation Committee, Criminal Code Amendment Misrepresentation of Age to a Minor BillThe Senate, Canberra, 30 June ; Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Criminal Code Amendment Misrepresentation of Age to a Minor BillThe Senate, Canberra, 27 June ; Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Criminal Code Amendment Misrepresentation of Age to A Minor BillThe Senate, Canberra, August Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, Scrutiny digest5,The Senate, Canberra, 10 Mayp.
Law Council of Australia, Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Inquiry into the Criminal Code Amendment Protecting Minors Online Bill3 Mayp. G Urbas, Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Inquiry into the Criminal Code Amendment Protecting Minors Online Bill4 May Australian Lawyers Alliance, Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Inquiry into the Criminal Code Amendment Protecting Minors Online Bill4 Mayp.
Also note that SASS did raise a question about how the Bill aligns with certain provisions in the Tasmanian Criminal Code Act which allow for the consent of the person against whom a crime is alleged to have been committed to be a defence, if at the time when the crime was alleged to have been committed, the person was of or above the age of 15 years and the accused person was not more than five years older.
Things I learnt about online dating in Australia: Dating tips!
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The law goes on to spell out that "if the victim is at least 14 but less than 16 years of age and the person convicted of statutory rape is 18 or younger and is no more than four years older than Missing: australia · Australia unveiled plans on Monday to make social media companies obtain parental consent for users under the age of 16, with multimillion dollar fines for failing to In Australia, Commonwealth and state and territory laws prohibit 'asking for, accessing, possessing, creating or sharing sexualised images of children and young people under 18'
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