Obscene phone users warned

 By JAYNE SAFIHAO

POLICE have warned people involved in sending illicit messages or indulging in phone sex on mobile phones that they face a fine of up to K20,000.

Assistant Police Commissioner for NCD/Central Jim Andrews gave this warning when commenting on complaints about phone sex, phone friend or mystery callers plus profanities texted to others using mobile phones.

“From what I understand, this is an abuse of the expensive network system provided by telecommunication companies,” Andrews said. 

“When the other party doesn’t accept, the caller should stop. This practice is rife also in the police force and it needs to be stopped.”

According to Telikom, the Telecommunications Act 1996 and Telecommunications Industry Act 2002 which have been merged into the revised National Information and Communications Technology Act, such actions carried a hefty fine.

Under Section 266 on the improper use of ICT services, a person who by means of an ICT service, sends any content or communication that the person knows is offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another person, sends any content or communication, that he knows to be false or persistently makes use of that ICT service with that intended purpose, is guilty of an offence.

The penalty is a fine not exceeding K20,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or both.

In Madang recently, a head teacher from a school on Karkar Island was bashed after luring the wife of another teacher through the phone to have sex with him.

He was bashed by the husband.