Many don’t know sex with minors is illegal

PETALING JAYA: The Government should not delay the implementation of sexual health education in schools because many juveniles had been jailed for statutory rape not knowing that it is an offence, said child rights activist James Nayagam.

For the past 30 years, he said he had counselled such juveniles who were not even aware that it was an offence to have sex with girls below the age of 16.

“All the boys I met did not know that they can be sent to jail if the parents of the underage girls lodge a police report,” he said.

“The Government must not delay implementing the syllabus in schools to educate girls and boys on this.”

Nayagam was asked to comment a report in The Star on Monday which stated that more than half of the rape cases reported in Malaysia over the past three years involved victims aged between 13 and 15.

He noted that the age of children getting involved in sexual relationship was getting younger from age 14 or 15 to about 13 in the last five years.

“It has become fashionable to have girlfriends or boyfriends. Some even think that it is a norm to have an abortion,” he said.

Nayagam said the Government should have trained teachers to provide the sexual health lessons so that boys and girls would be taught to protect themselves.

Women’s Aid Organisation advocacy officer (law and policy) Lainey Lau described the statistics on statutory rape as alarming.

These girls were young and were vulnerable to sexual abuse and victimisation, she said.

“We need to remember that statutory rape implies that we recognise that these girls have not achieved an age where their consent matters when it comes to sexual intercourse.

“Therefore, having sex with girls at that age is simply abusive and is considered rape,” she said.

Lau said society’s attitudes towards girls and women need to be changed so that they were not made sexual objects or blamed for rape.

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