PORNOGRAPHY REGULATION UNDER INDONESIA’S NEW CRIMINAL CODE: CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN MORAL RELATIVISM AND THE PRINCIPLE OF UNIVERSAL CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28946/scls.v4i1.6038Abstract
This study analyzes the contradiction between the principle of relativity and the principle of criminal universality in the regulation of pornography crimes under the New Criminal Code (Law No. 1 of 2023) (Articles 407-411). The New Criminal Code criminalizes various aspects of pornography, reflecting the protection of public morality and Indonesian cultural/religious values. The principle of relativity emphasizes that the definition of pornography is closely tied to socio-cultural and local standards. The specific provisions of the Criminal Code demonstrate a bias towards these relative moral standards. However, this poses the risk of over-criminalizing content that may be considered normal in other jurisdictions or non-exploitative for adults. Conversely, the principle of criminal universality demands universal criminal law protection, especially for crimes that violate fundamental human rights, such as child pornography and sexual exploitation. In a digital and transnational context, the need for universal standards is increasingly pressing. Contradictions arise when relatively national criminal laws attempt to be applied to a universal cyberspace. Rigid moral standards have the potential to hinder legitimate artistic or sexual expression (relativity) but also risk defocusing on crimes of exploitation that require a global response (universality). This study concludes that the implementation of the New Criminal Code must be balanced with progressive interpretation.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
As a journal author, you have rights for a large range of uses of your article, including use by your employing institute or company. These Author rights can be exercised without the need to obtain specific permission.
Authors publishing in SCLS journals have wide rights to use their works for teaching and scholarly purposes without needing to seek permission, including: use for classroom teaching by Author or Author's institution and presentation at a meeting or conference and distributing copies to attendees; use for internal training by author's company; distribution to colleagues for their research use; use in a subsequent compilation of the author's works; inclusion in a thesis or dissertation; reuse of portions or extracts from the article in other works (with full acknowledgement of final article); preparation of derivative works (other than commercial purposes) (with full acknowledgement of final article); voluntary posting on open web sites operated by author or author’s institution for scholarly purposes (follow CC by SA License).
Authors and readers can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, as well as remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, but they must give appropriate credit (cite to the article or content), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
