Bill limits employment of traders in pedophiliac material

Law panel passes bill aiming to add additional convicts to sex offenders employment law.

By RON FRIEDMAN
Tzipi Hotovely 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Tzipi Hotovely 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The Knesset Law Committee passed for second and third reading a bill prohibiting in certain institutions the employment of individuals convicted of creating or trading in pedophiliac material.
The bill, sponsored by MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), aims to add to the existing law – which prohibits the employment of convicted sex offenders – a prohibition on employing in institutions attended by minors or helpless people those convicted of creating, buying or selling child-sex images or videos.
The bill would limit employment and also volunteering in any institute catering to, or even occasionally attended by, the protected populations.
These include, schools, hospitals, clinics, cultural centers, gyms and zoos, among others.
The Justice Ministry representative opposed the proposal, explaining that the danger level of people convicted of such crimes is low.
But Yitzhak Kadman, chairman of the National Council for the Child, said that the bill did not go far enough and ought to also include people charged with possession of pedophiliac materials. Kadman added that the source of the problem was lack of enforcement, not legislated sanctions.
“To my sorrow, during the last five years, only seven people were convicted of creating or trading in pedophiliac materials, which points to lack of enforcement. Without enforcement, the law is a dead letter,” he said.
Hotovely said the bill strongly advances the protection of minors and the defenseless.
Ruth, a mother of three from the Jerusalem area, expressed grave concerns over lack of enforcement.
“There is zero oversight over the people who work with and around our children. In a few months, school will be out and I know for a fact that nobody looks into the background of camp counselors. Unlike in other countries, where everyone who has access to children has to provide a bill of approval from the police, here nobody even asks any questions,” she said. “For all I know, the bus driver who takes my children to school every day may have a record, but nobody cares to ask.”
The bill will soon go before the plenum for second and third readings.