Four boys and a girl were questioned last week for sharing a 13-year-old girl’s selfie of her naked upper body in October last year, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Lei said at a regular press conference on Friday.
The five teens are local pupils aged between 13 and 15: the four males are surnamed Chan, Ieong, Ng and Pun, while the female pupil is surnamed Ng. Among them, Chan, Ng and the female Ng are studying in the same school as the victim, while Ieong and Pun are enrolled in an education centre in the northern district.
According to Lei, the victim, accompanied by her father, told the Judiciary Police last Wednesday that her topless selfie had gone viral in local schools and friends’ chat groups. The victim told the police that she met Ieong last October on the internet and during one of their chats, the victim took the initiative of sending a selfie of her posing topless to Ieong who then forwarded it to Pun who had asked for it, and finally Pun shared the photo on the internet, after which it began to circulate widely this month.
According to Lei, a PJ investigation confirmed that the five pupils are enrolled in a school and an education centre in the northern district, and contacted them through the “School Safety Network” mechanism. They all admitted to sharing the photo.
The quintet has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for follow-up investigation, based on child pornography and invasion of privacy offences, according to Lei.
However, according to the Macau Penal Code, as the age of criminal responsibility stands at 16, the five pupils cannot be held criminally responsible for their deeds, but they can be ordered by the authorities to undergo non-penal correctional measures.
