KINGSTON, Jamaica — The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, commenced the debate on legislation to strengthen Jamaica’s cybercrime framework, providing stronger protection for children and sharper tools for law enforcement and prosecutors.

The Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act was piloted by Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Science, Technology and Special Projects, Andrew Wheatley.

In his remarks, Wheatley stated that Jamaica’s cybercrime framework was designed to meet a specific reality and has had to evolve, as that reality has changed.

“It was designed for an era when cybercrime was often understood narrowly [as] unauthorised access, interference with systems, and the misuse of devices.

“Today, the threat picture is wider and sharper: identity theft at scale, financial fraud and payment diversion, harassment and extortion conducted through viral platforms, and reputational destruction through synthetic media that can fabricate a person’s likeness or voice with alarming realism,” he added.

Wheatley further stated that the amended legislation introduces updated definitions and offences, reflecting the ways in which harm now travels through digital platforms.

Regarding the clauses, the minister explained that Clause Three strengthens protections for minors by amending the penalty framework under Section Four of the Act.

Where an offence is committed through access to any computer programme or data against an individual under 18 years, the court may now impose imprisonment for a term not exceeding 20 years.

Clause Four makes a corresponding amendment to Section Eight, providing that where the offence, namely fraud or forgery, is committed against an individual under 18 years, the penalty may include imprisonment for a term not exceeding 20 years.

“Clause Five amends Section Nine of the principal Act to effect two significant changes. Firstly, to replace the narrow wording ‘send to another person’, found in Section 9 (1) of the principal Act, with the broader concept of ‘publish’, and secondly to address a major modern harm vector: the non-consensual sharing of intimate content in the digital space. It creates the offence of publishing an intimate image without consent or being reckless as to whether consent has been given. It then defines the key terms in a way that reflects today’s platform reality,” Wheatley said.

“Importantly, the clause defines intimate image to include content that is captured, generated, or created. This is very important, as we are now living in an artificial [intelligence] (AI) age. The law must protect Jamaicans, not only from what a camera records but also from what modern tools can fabricate. It defines ‘publish’ in a practical, technology-aware way to include sending, transferring, posting, disseminating or, otherwise, providing access,” he added.

The minister further stated that the Bill makes it clear that a person under 18 is incapable of giving consent for these purposes.

He added that it provides carefully framed statutory defences for legitimate publication contexts, including law enforcement, legal proceedings, bona fide educational, scientific and medical research, as well as reporting on historical or current events, with reasonable care taken to omit explicit depiction.

Wheatley stated that where this offence is committed against an individual under 18 years, the court may impose a term of imprisonment not exceeding 20 years.

Clause Six of the Bill strengthens Jamaica’s ability to disrupt organised cybercrime by criminalising, without lawful justification, the intentional manufacture, sale, importation, distribution, disclosure, or provision of any computer, key, data, or device designed or adapted primarily for committing offences under Sections 3 to 9. It also criminalises the receipt or possession of such items with the intent that they be used to commit those offences.

“This clause goes directly to the modern reality. Cybercrime is industrialised… tools are traded, rented, bundled, and delivered like a service. If we want fewer victims, we must also choke off the enabling infrastructure,” Wheatley stated.

He also addressed the sharp rise in fraud and scamming, particularly in relation to banking and financial transactions.

The minister noted that numerous citizens and businesses have had their accounts targeted through phishing, impersonation, payment diversion, account takeovers, SIM‑swap tactics, and social engineering, which now spreads widely across messaging apps and social media.

“Increasingly, criminals are using AI-enabled tools – synthetic voices, manipulated images, and deepfakes – to make these deceptions more believable and more dangerous. This Bill strengthens our hands against that fraud ecosystem in practical ways. It does not merely chase the individual scammer after the money is gone. It targets the enablers – the tools, the infrastructure, and the environments that make organised cyber-fraud profitable,” Wheatley said.

“Clause Six is central to this, by tightening offences around the unlawful availability, distribution, or possession of devices, data, and keys designed or adapted primarily for committing cyber offences. The law directly disrupts the pipeline of tools used to compromise accounts and facilitate illicit transfers. Plainly put, we are raising the operational cost of scamming and increasing the likelihood of effective disruption, investigation and prosecution,” he added.

In the meantime, Opposition Leader, Mark Golding, while expressing support for the Bill, called for the establishment of another Joint Select Committee to update the legislation in order to address issues that have arisen through artificial intelligence.

Debate on the Bill was subsequently suspended.