TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior (MOI, 內政部) approved groundbreaking legislation on Thursday (July 3) establishing the "Act for Management and Use of the Digital Forensic Database for Images of Child and Juvenile Victims" (兒童及少年被害人性影像數位鑑識資料庫管理使用辦法). The new regulation aims to shield young victims from additional trauma during criminal investigations by reducing the need for repeated testimonies and preventing secondary victimization.
Speaking after an meeting at the MOI, Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) explained that the database will employ sophisticated hash value comparison technology to accomplish these protective objectives. The regulation emerges from legislative amendments to the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which Taiwan's president formally enacted on August 7 last year.
The comprehensive regulation mandates that law enforcement agencies utilize the database to verify hash values during investigations of sexual exploitation crimes targeting children and juveniles. The MOI stressed that authorities will deliberately avoid storing any actual images of child sexual exploitation, maintaining strict protocols to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy concerns.
Government officials developed these protective standards by drawing extensively from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ensuring a thorough and internationally aligned approach to safeguarding vulnerable minors from exploitation. ◼