CAMERA PHONES

Parliament of Singapore · 20 July 2004 · 10th Parliament

Official Report, 20 July 2004, Vol 78, Issue 2 · Open in the reader (summaries, search, filters)

Steve Chia Kiah HongWong Kan Seng

CAMERA PHONES

3.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong asked the Minister for Home Affairs if laws regarding the abuse of camera-enabled phones will be introduced to safeguard the privacy of private individuals.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: It is already an offence to use a camera-phone in certain ways, for example, a hidden camera in a changing room, or to photograph up a woman's skirt or take obscene photographs of any person. These are covered under section 509 of the Penal Code which makes it an offence for a person to intrude on the privacy of a woman and section 11(a) of the Undesirable Publications Act which makes it an offence for any person to make obscene photographs. The existing laws are adequate to deal with such misuse of mobile telephones.

However, merely taking photographs of people, with or without their knowledge, in a public place is not by itself an offence. There is no need to have a law on this to criminalise such an act.

Column: 277

Source: Singapore Parliament Official Report (Hansard) for 20 July 2004. Republished on SGParliament.