DSI attended the 1st national conference on “Children in the Digital Age: Together for Safer Internet for Children in Thailand”

DSI attended the 1^st national conference on “Children in the Digital Age: Together for Safer Internet for Children in Thailand”

       On February 8 and 9, 2023, Pol.Maj. Suriya Singhakamol (Acting Director-General of the Department of Special Investigation) assigned Pol.Capt. Piya Raksakul (Deputy Director-General) and Pol.Capt. Khemachat Prakaihongmanee (Head of the Center for Countering Child Sexual Abuse) to attend the national conference on “Children in the Digital Age: Together for Safer Internet for Children in Thailand”, held at the Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn, Bangkok chaired by Mr. Chuti Krairiksh (Minister of Social Development and Human Security).

       The conference was the first national conference in which the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) partnered with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), the Child Online Protection Action Thailand (COPAT), the INTERPOL, the ECPAT International, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Internet Foundation for the Development of Thailand and other allied organizations, and an expert meeting on child protection hosting over 100 participants from international law enforcement agencies for the goal of developing the National Strategy on Child Protection (2023-2027) that covers both online and offline environments.

       In the morning of February 8, 2023, Pol.Capt. Piya Raksakul (Deputy Director-General) discussed with network members and international law enforcement agencies on the DSI’s law enforcing roles under the Director-General’s policies focusing on prevention and suppression of special cases with severe impacts and child abuse cases as one of the offences prioritized by the DSI.

       Later in the afternoon, Pol.Capt. Khemachat Prakaihongmanee (Head of the Center for Countering Child Sexual Abuse) discussed the topic of “Online Child Protection: Fixing the Legal Loopholes of Transnational Crime and Extraterritorial Cases” with representatives of international law enforcement agencies, namely, the INTERPOL, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI), and presented the topic of “Thailand’s Challenge and DSI’s Roles in International Cooperation” to the countries/embassies to reinforce the law enforcement against online sexual exploitation and abuse of children, sourcing the information from the Disrupting Harm Report in Thailand, emphasizing Thai extraterritorial jurisdiction law that contains loopholes, particularly those relating to cyber crime affecting children.

       Child sexual abuse cases is a serious and high-impact crime that the DSI prioritizes by not only investigating as special cases, but also preventing the occurrence of such crime as another measure for long-term efficient and effective special case prevention and suppression.