THE police are stepping up efforts to crack down on child pornography in Malaysia, as the crime has shown an up tick in cases over the past six years.
Under Budget 2023, a special police unit was set up under the Bukit Aman Sexual, Women and Children Crime Investigation Division (D11) to counter child pornography.
Known as the Malaysia Internet Crime Against Children (Micac) Investigation unit, the department has managed to spread its wings to every state.
“This unit was originally formed in 2018 with a total of eight police officers.
“But with the recent Budget, our team now has a total of 46 personnel, with each police contingent [state] having at least one or two officers dealing with such cases,” says D11 principal assistant director Asst Comm Siti Kamsiah Hassan in a recent interview.
While the current capacity of the team is still considered small, she says there are plans to strengthen the unit, seeing that child pornography cases keep increasing.
“The Micac unit is also currently developing trained experts to tackle cybersexual crimes as special knowledge and skills are needed to hunt and track down these online criminals.
“We also need logistical support to ensure the Micac unit is able to perform its role in line with current crime trends,” she adds.
In February this year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when tabling the revised Budget 2023, had announced that a special unit under D11 will be set up to counter child pornography activities and cooperate with various agencies to identify those involved.
The need to tackle such crimes comes in light of the increasing number of cases, with the latest police data showing that a total of 136,993 Internet protocol (IP) addresses in Malaysia were found to be involved in child pornography between 2018 and January this year.
ACP Siti Kamsiah shares that in 2022, a total of 49,621 IP addresses involved in such illegal material were detected by the police.
“This means that every month, an average of 4,135 devices and networks are tuned into such pornography,” she says, adding that the large amount of information is sometimes overwhelming for the police.
On why the cases seem to be increasing, ACP Siti Kamsiah says it is easy for child pornography to mushroom due to technology and the widespread use of the Internet.
“It usually starts with the perpetrator initiating non-physical contact with the kids, messaging them online and sharing pictures with them.
“In more serious cases, they meet in real life and the perpetrator has their way with them and records the sexual acts,” she says.
These days, ACP Siti Kamsiah says such illicit material is not just available on the dark web, as it has started to appear on mainstream platforms.
Under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act, it is a crime to make, produce or direct the production of child pornography, with offenders facing a maximum 30-year jail term and minimum six strokes of the rotan.
It’s also against the law to access child pornography – this includes viewing and downloading the material – which is a crime punishable by a maximum five-year jail sentence, RM10,000 fine, or both.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
