The amendments to Kazakhstan’s penal code come several months after neighboring Kyrgyzstan outlawed such practices
Kazakhstan has amended its penal code, banning webcam sexual performances, which are now legally equated with prostitution-related activities. Regional media have recently been sounding the alarm over the rise of the industry in Central Asia.
The practice of live-streams of explicit content in exchange for money has become widespread in many parts of the world in recent decades. Some such platforms also advertise physical sexual services.
Prostitution itself is legal in Kazakhstan, but acts facilitating it – including coercion and operating brothels – are criminalized.
According to the media outlet Tengrinews.kz, the amendments were introduced under a Kazakh law on ‘battling human trafficking’ that took effect in July. A new term – ‘other services of a sexual nature’ – has been added to the criminal code.
“Other services…