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Belgium joins the European Commission at the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case of child protection legislation. The Belgian government believes the law discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity, the country’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
Hungarian news site Mandiner points out that the child protection law – adopted in June, 2021 – has broadened the scope of action against pedophile offenders, for instance, banning advertising that depicts sexuality for its own sake, or promoting and displaying deviation from the identity of the sex of birth, gender reassignment, and homosexuality, all from being made available to children under the age of eighteen.
Belgium has also spearheaded the fight against the law since its adoption, persuading 17 other member states to adopt a joint declaration expressing concern about the measure, claiming that it discriminates against LGBTQ people and violates the right to freedom of expression.
However, the need for a more potent legislation protecting children against sexual predators was highlighted by several organizations and politicians on Monday after a male teacher at a Budapest school was exposed in bragging on social media site TikTok that he had a teenage boy for a lover.
The Young Families’ Club (Ficsak) is calling for a change in the legal definition of pedophilia. “As a family organization, we will signal to the government that it would be worthwhile to review and possibly tighten the relevant legislation, because we find it deeply outrageous and unacceptable that a child could be involved in a relationship with an adult almost three times his age,” said Ficsak founder Nóra Király.
She said it was particularly outrageous that “Zsolt Bite, who defines himself as an ephebophile, i.e. a person attracted to the 15-19 age group, refuses any moral…criticism and merely tries to justify his lifestyle by claiming that his partner is one year older than the 14-year age limit, under which it would be considered pedophilia to have sexual relations with him.”
Máté Kocsis, head of the parliamentary group of the governing Fidesz party, reacted on Facebook to both developments. “The imperial headquarters in Brussels has taken us to court over our anti-pedophile legislation. Our child protection law has been attacked and violated, so the fight goes on,” he wrote. “As a father of two children and one of the authors of the law, I can say that
as long as even one pedophile is looking for legal loopholes, or if they want to annul our law against the will of the 3.6 million Hungarians who have expressed their will in the referendum, we have work to do. We will fight to protect our children,”
the politician added.
Featured photo via the European Commission