Singapore has revised its penal code for the first time since 2007.
Among the changes are prohibitions on “revenge porn”, “cyber-flashing”, marital rape, and child sex dolls as well as a move to decriminalize suicide.
Most of the changes in the revised penal code focus on cracking down on anti-social and sexually perverse behavior online.
In particular, the Singaporean government has outlawed “revenge porn”.
Revenge porn occurs when a person shares or threatens to share sexually-explicit photos of their former partner as a means of revenge or coercion.
Criminal attorneys in Thailand note that Section 287 of the Thai penal code prohibits the production, distribution, and possession of any pornography, not just revenge porn.
With the rise of social media, revenge porn has become more and more of a problem worldwide, resulting in numerous governments legislating against it.
In Singapore, those caught distributing revenge porn will face up to five years in prison as well as a fine and caning.
The new penal code also goes after those who send unsolicited nudes on the internet–what the Singapore government calls “cyber-flashing”.
Individuals convicted of cyber-flashing face up to a year in prison and a fine.
Singapore’s penal code, inherited from the its former colonial overlord Britain, has seen only a few revisions in its 150-year-old history.
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