Worrying trend: To stop child porn crimes from spiralling further, the police are strengthening their war against child pornography. Picture posed by model. — Filepic/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: The number of criminal cases involving child pornography has been increasing over the years, with more and more people accessing it online in Malaysia, according to police data made available to Sunday Star.
“The number of Internet protocol (IP) addresses in Malaysia found to be involved in these crimes totalled 136,993 between 2018 and January this year,” said Bukit Aman Sexual, Women and Children Crime Investigation Division (D11) principal assistant director Asst Comm Siti Kamsiah Hassan in a recent interview.
“Such IP addresses have been rising annually,” she added.
Selangor topped the list of states with the most number of child pornography cases, which include creating, viewing, downloading, and sharing such material.
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Out of the 4,832 cases opened by the police between 2018 and last year, 23% – or 1,114 cases – were in Selangor.
This was followed by Johor with 492 cases, Kuala Lumpur with 476, and Sabah with 375 during the same period.
Most of the cases involved people accessing the material online such as by uploading, downloading, and spreading pictures and videos of the children, said ACP Siti Kamsiah.
Some cases also involved incidents where perpetrators manipulated young victims into either sending explicit visuals or recording sexual acts with them.
“Most of the suspects are unemployed, making up 33% [1,657] of the total 5,057 suspects we have identified over the past five years,” she said.
Other suspects include students, salespeople, labourers, security guards, and spiritual leaders.
On the relationship between perpetrators and the children, ACP Siti Kamsiah said about 90% are people the children already know, such as family members and neighbours.
“The remaining 10% are people the children have not met in person, like online acquaintances,” she added.
The list of suspects and their relationships with the children was found to be very disturbing as it ranges from fathers, mothers and uncles to stepfathers, cousins and teachers.
To stop such crimes from spiralling further, the police are strengthening their war against child pornography.
The special unit under D11 to counter child pornography, formed under the revised 2023 Budget has been expanded to cover every state in Malaysia.
ACP Siti Kamsiah said the recent Budget enabled the team, known as the Malaysia Internet Crime Against Children (Micac) Investigation unit, to grow from its initial eight officers to the current total of 46.
“The Micac unit is also currently training experts to tackle cybersexual crimes, as special knowledge and skills are needed to hunt and track down these online criminals,” she added.
Recently, Malaysia also amended the Sexual Offences Against Children Act to include new provisions to empower the courts to order a convicted perpetrator to pay compensation to the victim.
Passed by the Dewan Negara on April 6, the amended Act also replaces the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material”, among other changes.
Currently, it is a crime to make, produce or direct the production of child pornography, which is punishable by a maximum 30-year jail term and a minimum of six strokes of the rotan.
It is also an offence to access child pornography, which includes viewing and downloading the material.
It carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment, a RM10,000 fine, or both.
