The Lower House on Tuesday passed a bill to raise the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 to protect children from sexual abuse as part of reforms to the country's Penal Code.

The bill, which will also criminalize sexual offenses even in the absence of physical violence or coercion, will be sent to the Upper House after it received unanimous approval in the House of Representatives.

A new crime would be established to punish acts of secretly photographing or filming a person's sexual anatomy, and providing such photos or videos to a third person, with perpetrators subject to a prison sentence of up to three years.