Singapore legislation
Section 146A
Section 146A
Remote communication service used for offering or facilitating provision of sexual services, etc.
(1)
A person in or outside Singapore who, in the course of business, uses a remote communication service with a Singapore link to —
offer or facilitate the provision by a woman or girl to another person of sexual services in Singapore in return for payment or reward; or
organise, manage or supervise the provision of sexual services referred to in paragraph (a), which may include inviting others to receive or participate in providing those services,shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —
to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both; but(d)where the person is a repeat offender, to a fine not exceeding $150,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both.
(1A)
A person is a repeat offender in relation to an offence under subsection (1) if the person has been convicted or found guilty (whether before, on or after 7 August 2020) on at least one other earlier occasion of an offence under subsection (1).
(1B)
However, where a person is charged with an offence under subsection (1), it is a defence for the person charged to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the person did not know, and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained, that the remote communication service in question had a Singapore link.
(2)
To avoid doubt, the reference in subsection (1) to the provision by a woman or girl to another person of sexual services in return for payment or reward includes, but is not limited to, a reference to the prostitution of the woman or girl.
(3)
In subsection (1), “remote communication service” means —
any website, web service or Internet application;
any service using voice telephony;
any service using a messaging system; or
any other kind of electronic or other technology for facilitating communication.
(4)
For the purposes of this section, a remote communication service has a Singapore link if any person physically present in Singapore is capable of having access to any matter communicated using the remote communication service; and in determining whether a person who is physically present in Singapore is capable of having such access, it is to be assumed that the person will not falsify or conceal the person’s identity or location.
(5)
For the purposes of subsection (4), access includes —
access that is subject to a precondition, such as the use of a password;
access by way of push technology; and
access by way of a standing request.
(6)
Where an offence under this section is committed by a person outside Singapore, the person may be dealt with in respect of that offence as if it had been committed in Singapore.