Korean approach to online protection for children in digital era

Children are the most cherished members of our society but most vulnerable to harm, abuse, violence and exploitation in both online and offline world. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) prescribes the fundamental rights of children particularly to safeguard the liberty and protect the safety, security and privacy of the children. It imposed obligation on the state parties to protect the fundamental rights of children, which includes the right to life, survival and development; the right to be free and protected from harm, abuse, violence and exploitation; and the right to a fair trial and appropriate redress for children that have infringed or violated any law. These fundamental rights of the children particularly the right to be free from harm, abuse, violence and exploitation are being threatened with the existence of the internet and the digital technology. Without doubt internet is an important source of information, education and communication for children and young people but it also bring threats and risks to children's safety, security and privacy. It exposes children not only to harmful violence and inappropriate content but also to strangers and pedophiles, who sexually exploit children and expose them to online abuse such as child pornography and child prostitution. The Internet also provides avenue for harassing, stalking and bullying online that threaten the physical and emotional security as well as privacy of the children. Awareness of these online threats and risks is important but in order to provide a safer internet environment for children and young people, the law and regulation should be adequately comprehensive and enforceable to protect the children from the online threat and risks. such protection is important particularly to safeguard the rights to life, survival and development of the children. The presentation will highlight the approach adopted by South Korea being the most wired country in the world in addressing the issue on online protection for children from the legal perspective

Protecting children against exposure to content risks online in Malaysia: lessons from Australia

Children are the most vulnerable group in any civil society. The rise of digital technology has made them more exposed to threats of content risks through exposure to illegal and harmful Internet content. To make matters worse, legal framework regulating the Internet in Malaysia i.e. self-regulation does not mandate service providers to implement technical measures that could help reduce children’s exposure to content risks. Continuous exposure to content risk could lead to dilution of traditional values among younger generation. In order to reduce this outcome, all Internet stakeholders in Malaysia must take Internet regulation more seriously. This paper consists of three parts. The first part argues that content risks are a real threat to children in Malaysia as seen in previous studies. The second part of this paper presents the outcome of library research and focus group discussions with Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), selected Internet service providers in Malaysia and the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum (CMCF) on the regulatory measures practiced in the Malaysian self-regulation framework. This research finds non-censorship policy that does not mandate service providers to classify nor filter prohibited content to be problematic since it greatly exposed children to content risks. Furthermore, the Content Code, which guides the industrial self-regulation had no enforcement teeth, hence weakened the regulatory framework as a whole. In comparison, Australian co-regulation scheme has been focusing on protection of children online through classification and filtering measures. Lessons learnt from the Australian jurisdiction could be of reference to Malaysia in its effort to reduce children’s exposure to content risks online – as addressed in the final part of this paper

A case study on misuse of company's Confidential Information in Malaysia: Suggestions for improvement

Directors and employees are individuals who involved in the course of company’s business and would inevitably expose themselves to company’s confidential information. At present there are in existence legal provisions imposing duties upon the directors and employees for the purpose of protecting the company’s confidential information. In addition, the employees would normally be subjected to non-disclosure agreement upon their employment. The progress of the present technology has exposed company’s information at a high risk to be manipulated by individuals who involved in the company. This paper aims to discuss the viability of the present safeguard in protecting the company’s confidential information. The research intends to analyse decided cases on the approach adopted in determining whether there is misused or misappropriation of company‘s confidential information by the directors or the employees. The discussion would also focus on whether the non-disclosure of company’s confidential information would still be relevant when the directors or employees leave the company. In suggesting improvement for the present scenario it would be pertinent to analyse as well case laws from different jurisdiction. This study would be significant to ensure that the company’s confidential information is being sufficiently protected so that the company would remain competitive and dynamic

Legal tech in legal service: challenging the traditional legal landscape in Malaysia

Digital technologies are now extending its function to the legal profession. But the existence of these technologies otherwise known as legal technology (legal tech) or law tech is challenging the traditional legal profession. The nature of legal practice regulation in Malaysia and the United Kingdom (UK) permits only lawyers and authorised persons as legal service providers. As a result, the legal tech or law tech companies although able to facilitate the service in the legal profession are met with resistance and/or indifference. Should the traditional legal profession fear the invasion of this legal tech? This article aims to analyse the situation in Malaysia and the UK. It examines the impact of technology on legal service and legal profession in Malaysia and in the UK. The article also highlights the implication of this legal technology on the laws governing the legal profession in Malaysia. Through analyses of key Malaysian cases, the study finds that the Bar Council has the power to halt the operation of legal tech companies in providing any legal service in this country.As a result, the Bar has been criticised for being a hindrance to the development of legal tech in Malaysia. In contrast, the UK and the United States of America (US) have been very receptive to legal technology despite the exclusivity in the legal profession

Malaysia: Intellectual Property

The monograph "Malaysia" is an integral part of Intellectual Property in the International Encyclopaedia of Laws series

Guaranteeing safer consumption of nutraceutical products in Malaysia: must it always be on the government?

Nutraceutical products have become widespread phenomenon for proclaimed benefits they seem to offer. To define what nutraceutical is has always been confusing in certain jurisdictions especially Malaysia. Legally, they cannot be considered as mere food, and they are not pharmaceutical drugs either. Due to uncertainty in its categorisation, manufacturing and product delivery processes have become easier for nutraceutical manufacturers. They have made numerous health claims that were not based on clinical evidence and there is no legal requirement for such. Although some consumers have benefited from the products, established research suggested that consumers could risks their health through long-term consumption. Hence, this paper intends to discover regulatory issues and challenges encountered by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and the Food Safety and Quality Division (FSQD) under the Ministry of Health Malaysia in regulating nutraceutical products – from production to marketing processes to ensure safer consumption. Focus group discussions have been conducted with officers from NPRA and FSQD, which led to the following results. This paper finds two intriguing discovery namely: - (1) there is an ineffective self-regulatory framework governing nutraceutical industry in Malaysia as both agencies aforementioned have no effective control particularly in key areas such as enforcement, product labelling, and advertising. Secondly, the paper also finds lack of awareness and knowledge on safe production amongst nutraceutical manufacturers – which could be reflected on the products they produce and may threatens consumers in the longer run. It seems that in the Malaysian atmosphere, governmental intervention may be highly required to guarantee safer consumption of nutraceutical products – so that consumers may truly benefit from them. Self-regulation as practiced may have made the nutraceutical industry too complacent hence have placed consumers’ safety at stake

Regulatory control of herbal and traditional medicines in Malaysia: issues and concerns

Many herbs are believed to be beneficial in curing diseases, in addition to improving general health and wellbeing. With the booming of many herbal and traditional medicines into local markets, it is feared that the harmful side effects might prevail over their potential benefits as there is a lack of or even no scientific basis for the belief. The popularity of these medicines in the modern age is proliferated by the rapid growth of the internet usage worldwide vis-à-vis aggressive online marketing by the manufacturers, producers, retailers and sellers. These categories of medicines generally fall under the purview of various regulations such as the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984, Sale of Drug Act 1952, Poison Act 1952, and the Advertisement and Sale Act 1956. Despite these regulations, production and sale of traditional medicines might pose some issues in relation to their safety to the consumers as they contain some new active ingredient of plant extracts which are chemicals that have the potential of causing adverse implication to health, similar to those purified medications. Generally, registration requirements for food supplements are not as stringent as those made applicable for pharmaceutical products and hence, many herbal and traditional medicines are registered under the former rather than the latter categories. Setting on this background, this paper seeks to examine the current legal framework regulating herbal and traditional medicines in Malaysia, with a special emphasis on the issues and challenges revolving around them. This paper uses qualitative research method, that is a content analysis of the existing literature from journals, articles, periodicals and various websites. Doctrinal analysis is applied to examine the relevant laws in selected jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, European Union, Australia and Japan, with the aim of emulating the most suitable, best practice from these countries. This paper concludes with some suggestions such as imposing the requirement of clinical evidence and adopting a systematic post-marketing surveillance to overcome the problems and weaknesses of the current legal mechanism in regulating products of herbal and traditional medicines

‘Unsafe’ nutraceuticals products on the Internet: The need for stricter regulation in Malaysia

Nutraceutical products are functional foods consumed by many for its proclaimed benefits to health. Most nutraceutical products are not pharmaceutical drugs, hence has been treated as food. This made nutraceutical regulation more difficult since they do not fall under the jurisdiction of pharmaceutical regulatory authorities. Accordingly, Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulation 1984 and related legislations do not bind nutraceutical producers. This puts them away from direct monitoring and supervision from the Drug Control Authority (DCA). It is feared that lack of monitoring, unsupervised and unregulated production of nutraceutical products in a long run and for a long use could harm consumers. To add to the problem, nutraceutical products have been easily marketed through social media. Online sellers made ‘attractive’ claims that these products could cure even the most serious diseases. This paper examines the definitions of nutraceutical products and its regulatory frameworks in popular jurisdictions. It then proceeds to highlight the problem in lack of regulatory controls over nutraceutical products, which causes harms to consumers. This is worsened when social media has been effectively used to market these products – where some online sellers went up to the extent of making false claims to attract customers’ attention. The paper concludes with the finding that Food Act 1983 needs to address purchases of nutraceutical products through online channels. In particular, when a product was found to make false claims, the Food Act 1983 must also be empowered to have notice and takedown procedures – so that online customers will not be deceived by such claims

Legal framework for theft of trade secrets and corporate espionage in Malaysia: adhering to the trans pacific partnership agreement (TPPA)

Theft of trade secrets and corporate espionage threaten innovation, growth, development and investment of business entities and national economy globally. Civil remedies alone are insufficient to protect trade secrets from this growing threat. As a measure to address this issue, the TPPA requires signatory countries to criminalize theft of trade secrets and corporate espionage. In Malaysia civil remedies under the common law of breach of confidence and employment contract, protects the owner’s right against any misappropriation of trade secrets. However there is no law to criminalize theft of trade secrets and corporate espionage in Malaysia. This research is undertaken to establish a legal framework to criminalize theft of trade secrets and corporate espionage apart from analyzing the protection of trade secrets in Malaysi