...but OK at home. Regardless of the laws and customs of the foreign
country (and whether you took the 16-year-old with you presumably).
News article:
=========================================
UK signs up to new global approach in protecting children from .ual
abuse
eGov monitor, UK: 9 May 2008
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/18733
Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker today stepped up the Government's
commitment to the global protection of young people, having signed the
Council of Europe's Convention on the Protection of Children from
.ual Exploitation and Abuse. The signature coincided with the second
anniversary of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
(CEOP).
The Convention sets standards to ensure that countries criminalise the
.ual exploitation and abuse of children and adopt similar standards
of investigation and prosecution of these crimes. It also includes
measures on exchanging the identity of convicted . offenders with
other countries. The UK is aiming to ratify the Convention as soon as
possible and it will come into effect once ratified by five of the
signature countries.
[...]
As a response to the Convention, the Government has amended the .ual
Offences Act 2003 to remove the condition of dual criminality in
relation to .ual offences committed by British nationals against
children overseas.
This means that a British national will not be able to target a
particular country with less stringent protection of children than
England and Wales or Northern Ireland - Scotland has indicated its
intention to make a similar legislative change.
We will now be able to prosecute UK nationals here for a .ual
offence committed against a child anywhere in the world, so long as
the act committed would be a relevant offence in this country. We have
also raised the age of a child for these purposes from 16 to 18. This
has all been achieved through the Criminal Justice and Immigration
Bill which received Royal Assent on Thursday 8 May. |