Kazakhstan has amended its penal code, banning webcam sexual performances, which are now legally equated with prostitution-related activities. Regional media have recently been sounding the alarm over the rise of the industry in Central Asia.
The practice of live-streams of explicit content in exchange for money has become widespread in many parts of the world in recent decades. Some platforms also advertise physical sexual services.
Prostitution itself is legal in Kazakhstan, but acts facilitating it – including coercion and operating brothels – are criminalized.
According to the media outlet Tengrinews.kz, the amendments were introduced under a Kazakh law on ‘battling human trafficking’ that took effect in July. A new term – ‘other services of a sexual nature’ – has been added to the criminal code.
“Other services of a sexual nature are understood to be the commission of acts aimed at satisfying another individual’s sexual needs, including remotely in real time with the help of telecommunication technology, including the Internet, with the aim of obtaining a profit,” the amendment states, as quoted by the media outlet.
The new definition has been added to several articles of the penal code dealing with prostitution, running brothels, and the involvement of minors in such illegal activities.
Last year, Kazakh authorities reported that they had dismantled a highly organized criminal group specializing in illegal webcam services. The ring supposedly lured young women with the promise of high salaries, and retained them through blackmail.
In late June, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov signed off on changes to the country’s criminal code, which outlawed the “facilitation and abetment of prostitution and debauchery via the Internet (webcam-studios).” The amendments also envisaged penalties for sex workers involved in such activities.
Individuals found guilty of organizing explicit live-streams could face up to seven years behind bars, or up to 15 if minors are involved. Individuals caught providing such services could be fined $120.
The changes were initiated by several lawmakers who argued that the phenomenon had reached troubling proportions in the region.
Commenting on the webcam porn ban in Kyrgyzstan in late July, Russian member of parliament Nina Ostanina, who chairs the committee on family in the Russian parliament, told the RTVI media outlet that there was “no need for additional regulative measures” targeting such services in Russia.
She acknowledged that some young women in Russia do engage in such practices “due to a lack of education,” but said no special restrictions were necessary.