The Senate today passed the Child Pornography Bill making the production, possession, importation, exportation and distribution of child pornography a criminal offence locally.

After more than three hours of debate the Upper House gave the bill the nod with seven amendments.

Despite collective support for the far-reaching law, Government and Opposition senators disagreed on critical points during deliberations at the committee stage.

This resulted in the Opposition calling for a divide twice, with the results going in favour of the Government side, which had superior numbers.

Leader of Government Business in the Senate Dorothy Lightbourne who piloted the bill defined child pornography as images of a child, a person under the age of 18 years, someone appearing to be a child, engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities.

The definition also relates to any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes, Lightbourne added.

Opposition Senator Sandrea Falconer said the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) needed to be more equipped to investigate Internet child pornography.

Senator Falcolner received support from her colleague K.D. Knight who argued that the police might not devote sufficient attention to enforcement of this new law.

Government Senator Dennis Meadows who pointed to a serious breakdown in the moral fibre of the society, said a number of current practices such as the video-taping of explicit dances involving children during carnival and street dances might breach provisions of the child pornography bill.