Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
No
Age of sexual consent is 14 with a close-in-age exemption for peer relationships among children aged 12 and above but below 18.
ECO Hungary, 2021
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
Partial
Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for SEC related crimes without requiring double criminality. Passive extraterritoriality can only lead to criminal proceedings if requested by the Prosecutor General.
Extradition is possible for SEC offences but requires double criminality. Foreign perpetrators with residence in Hungary or Hungarian nationals cannot be extradited.
SEC offences are referred to as extraditable under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) framework within the EU without requiring double criminality if the act is punishable by a maximum period of at least three years of imprisonment in the requesting State.
ECO Hungary, 2021
CSAM Definition
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition of CSAM which is in line with international standards.
ECO Hungary, 2021
Background Check Required
Partial
Labour Law (Act No. I of 2012) requires a certificate of No Criminal Record (it is a so called ‘Moral Certificate’) for certain jobs but there is no such general regulation for jobs related to children. In most of the cases, it is up to the employers whether they need such certificate.
Child Rights Report, 2021
National Commitments
Partial
Hungary has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Hungary has also ratified the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
Hungary has not ratified the OPIC and the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics
ECO Hungary, 2021
Child Advocacy Centers
Partial
Hearing and Therapy Centres operate in 5 cities (regional centers). The main goal of these centers is to reducse re-traumatisation of children in particular during the criminal procedure. Professionals working in these centers conduct child hearings with special, trauma-sensitive way. However, in practice, the hearing centres struggle a lot of systematic problems.
ECPAT Country Report 2021, Child Rights Report 2021, 2021
SEC Police Unit
Partial
The main police unit including SEC in its mandate is the Cybercrime Division of the National Investigation Bureau which has competence over online manifestations of SEC and the the Child and Youth Protection Department of the Budapest Police Headquarters, responsible for investigating SEC in the capital city, often with international links, although its jurisdiction does not cover the whole country. Lastly, 22 specialised human trafficking professionals were appointed at the national police headquarters in 2019 to increase the efficiency of investigations.
ECO Hungary, 2021
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
No
No regulation binding or non-binding establishing SEC protection standards on travel and tourism at all either in law or in soft law.
ECPAT Country Report, 2021
Public SEC Case Data
No
There is national SEC case data made public by the Unified Investigation and Prosecution Crime Statistics on some SEC-related crimes such as exploitation of children in prostitution, crimes related to child sexual abuse material and child, early and forced marriage. No information was found on whether this data is clearly disaggregated, made available periodically and whether it contains data on offenders and on compensation sought by child victims.
ECO Hungary, 2021
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.