–legislation likely to be sent to Special Select Committee when tabled

THE Draft Cybercrime legislation will soon be presented to Cabinet, now that consultations and adjustments on the bill have been completed.Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams, will make a special appeal to Cabinet for the legislation to be sent to a Select Committee when it is presented in the National Assembly. Once cleared by Cabinet, the draft legislation would be laid in the House.

The draft bill initially presented to stakeholders in March has since undergone several changes. “As a result of that consultation, we had to make several adjustments to the draft bill,” Williams explained.

Once passed, the bill would safeguard Guyanese against cybercrime, including computer-related forgery, identity theft, child pornography, child luring, and offenses affecting critical infrastructure.

The Cybercrime Bill 2016 was crafted with the primary objective to combat cybercrimes by creating offenses and to provide for penalties, investigation and prosecution of the offences and related matters. The draft bill mandates that a person who, intentionally and without lawful excuse or justification, inputs, alters, deletes or suppresses computer data, resulting in (the production of) inauthentic data with the intent that it be considered or acted upon for legal purposes as if it were authentic, regardless of whether or not the data is directly readable and intelligible, commits an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $3M and to imprisonment for three years.

In addition, persons who disseminate information after being convicted will be fined $20,000, and will also be liable to a three-year prison term.

The bill also outlines the penalties for computer fraud, in the sense that anyone who commits an offence deemed to be computer fraud will be dealt heavier penalties, with a summary conviction carrying a $5M fine and a five-year prison term.

Cyberbullying, which is bullying through the use of technology, is also deemed an offence, according to the bill. It states that to cyberbully another person intentionally or recklessly is deemed to be committing an offence.

According to the bill, “a cyberbully” is someone who uses a computer system to repeatedly or continuously convey information which causes fear, intimidation, humiliation, distress, or other harm to another person. The actions of such persons become detrimental to another person’s health, their emotional well-being, self-esteem or their reputation.

Child pornography as an offence is also clearly defined by the bill: Anyone who intentionally produces child pornography for the purpose of its distribution through a computer system, or who offers or makes available child pornography through a computer system, is guilty of an offence. In addition, anyone who distributes, transmits, procures or obtains child pornography through a computer is also guilty of an offence.

If summarily convicted, such individuals are liable to be fined $5M and serve a five-year prison term.

In light of the pending legislation, the Guyana Police Force has, with a series of training, been preparing its ranks to effectively address this kind of crime. An Assistant Superintendent and a Sergeant attended a just concluded Interpol-sponsored cybercrime training session in the Dominican Republic.

The Ministry of Legal Affairs has also been exposing its staff to cybercrime training, and the Director of Public Prosecution and Justice of Appeal attended such seminars in Brazil.