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
The age of sexual consent for both boys and girls is 15 years. The Thai Penal Code also provides for close-in age exemption in case a child below 18 has sexual intercourse with another child aged 13-15 years of age with the consent of the latter. However, there is no criterion to determine whether the consent is voluntary, well-informed and mutual.
DH Legal Analysis Thailand, 2020
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
No
Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for in general terms although it is unclear which SEC related offences are covered by this general provision. Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for OCSE offences for which the double criminality principle is required.
Extradition requires double criminality and a minimum gravity of one year of imprisonment. There is no specific provisions on extradition for SEC related offences.
DH Legal Analysis Thailand, 2020
CSAM Definition
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition of CSAM which is in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include depictions of the sexual parts of a child’s body for primarily sexual purposes. The definition covers visual as well as audio and written material. The use of words “drawings” and “illustrations” can be used to cover cases of computer/digitally generated CSAM.
This definition fails to explicitly cover materials that depict a person appearing to be a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct, unless such material is covered under computer/digitally generated CSAM.
DH Legal Analysis Thailand, 2020
Background Check Required
No
There are no mandatory legal provisions for criminal background checks nor legislation prohibiting convicted sex offenders to hold positions involving or facilitating contact with children. However, a mandatory criminal background check was introduced in 2015 for foreign teachers.
SECTT Legal Checklist Thailand, 2020
National Commitments
Partial
Thailand has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol, the ILO Convention and the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure.
It has not ratified the WTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics and the two Council of Europe conventions (the Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions).
DH Legal Analysis Thailand, 2020
Child Advocacy Centers
Not Yet AssessedNo information has been found.
SEC Police Unit
Partial
The main police units including SEC in their mandate are the Thailand Internet Crimes against Children Taskforce which investigates OCSE related offences and the Anti Human Trafficking Division that deals with trafficking cases. It is unclear whether both offences under national and extra-territorial jurisdiction are able to be addressed by these units, and whether the units are fully functional.
DH Desk-based Research Thailand, 2020
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
No
There are no child protection standards for the travel and tourism industry in place.
SECTT Legal Checklist ASEAN, 2020
Public SEC Case Data
Partial
The Thailand Internet Crimes Against Children taskforce has been sharing data on the number of cases of online child sexual exploitation and abuse, trafficking and child sexual abuse since 2015. 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. It is unclear whether public SEC case data is available for other SEC-related offences.
DH Desk-based Research Thailand, 2020
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.