Section 279: Indecent act against a child under 15
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดกระทำอนาจารแก่เด็กอายุยังไม่เกินสิบห้าปี โดยเด็กนั้นจะยินยอมหรือไม่ก็ตาม ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสิบปี หรือปรับไม่เกินสองแสนบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ
ถ้าการกระทำความผิดตามวรรคหนึ่ง เป็นการกระทำแก่เด็กอายุไม่เกินสิบสามปี ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่หนึ่งปีถึงสิบปี หรือปรับตั้งแต่สองหมื่นบาทถึงสองแสนบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ
ถ้าการกระทำความผิดตามวรรคหนึ่งหรือวรรคสอง ผู้กระทำได้กระทำโดยขู่เข็ญด้วยประการใด ๆ โดยใช้กำลังประทุษร้าย โดยเด็กนั้นอยู่ในภาวะที่ไม่สามารถขัดขืนได้ หรือโดยทำให้เด็กนั้นเข้าใจผิดว่าตนเป็นบุคคลอื่น ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่หนึ่งปีถึงสิบห้าปี หรือปรับตั้งแต่สองหมื่นบาทถึงสามแสนบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
Whoever commits an indecent act against a child not over fifteen years of age, whether or not the child consents, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht, or both.
Where the offence under paragraph one is committed against a child not over thirteen years of age, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from one to ten years, or a fine from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand baht, or both.
Where the offence under paragraph one or paragraph two is committed by threat of any kind, by violence, while the child is in a state in which he or she cannot resist, or by causing the child to mistake the offender for another person, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from one to fifteen years, or a fine from twenty thousand to three hundred thousand baht, or both.
[Paragraphs four, five, six and seven repealed by the Criminal Code Amendment Act (No. 30) B.E. 2568.]
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 279 is the child-victim counterpart to Section 278, and like the child rape offence in Section 277 it removes consent as a defence: an indecent act against a child not over fifteen is an offence whether or not the child agreed. It is tiered by age, with paragraph two setting a minimum term of imprisonment for victims not over thirteen. The offence covers indecent conduct that does not reach the penetration defined in Section 277/4, which would instead engage Section 277. Aggravated forms, including use of a weapon and results of grievous harm or death, are dealt with in Section 280, and Section 285 aggravates penalties for offenders in a position of trust over the child.
Why this matters in practice
Because consent is not a defence, disputes in these cases usually concern the child's age and whether an indecent act occurred, rather than agreement. Penalty exposure reaches ten years, and where the conduct amounts to the penetration in Section 277/4 the more serious child rape offence under Section 277 applies instead. The offence is not among the compoundable offences in Section 281. Given the seriousness of any allegation involving a child, anyone accused should consult a Thai lawyer promptly.
Cited in 204 Supreme Court decisions (1965 to 2026)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 3277/2566 (2023)
- Decision 421/2566 (2023)
- Decision 1899/2565 (2022)
- Decision 4371/2564 (2021)
- Decision 3106/2564 (2021)
- Decision 7354/2562 (2019)
- Decision 7178/2562 (2019)
- Decision 5485/2562 (2019)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 91 148
- Section 277 144
- Section 317 100
- Section 90 97
- Section 78 82
- Section 80 48
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Does a child's consent matter under Section 279?
No. An indecent act against a child not over fifteen is an offence whether or not the child consents.
When does the conduct become child rape instead of an indecent act?
Where the conduct amounts to the penetration defined in Section 277/4, the more serious offence of sexual intercourse with a child under Section 277 applies instead of Section 279.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 279 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 279. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-279/ (accessed 19 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 279 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-279/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-279/"><p>Whoever commits an indecent act against a child not over fifteen years of age, whether or not the child consents, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht, or both. Where the offence under paragraph…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 279 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-279/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.