KOTA KINABALU: With Malaysia coming in sixth place among countries for cyberbullying, the government is looking at creating a platform to tackle this, says Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin.
He said the idea, still under consideration and study, was for a platform where victims could get help and where action could be taken against cyberbullies.
Speaking to reporters after a town hall session in conjunction with the Home Ministry’s Kita Demi Rakyat programme here, Hamzah said there was high Internet accessibility in the country but also high rates of cyberbullying.
“Our Internet penetration is high and it is showing that some people are beginning to use it to carry out bullying,” he said, referring to statistics that Malaysia had a 95.5% Internet penetration rate with some 28 million Malaysians or 86% using social media.
He said the number of cybercrimes had increased by about 61% from 4,433 in 2016 to 11,367 cases till July 2022.
He said among them were 178 racial, 328 religious and 357 cases against the institution of royalty.
Meanwhile, India topped the world cyberbullying ranking, followed by Brazil and the United States, he said.
Hamzah added that in Asia, Malaysia was second after India.
“We accept it. Maybe other countries are not reporting the cases. (But) we are high in terms of cyberbullying reports.
“Cyberbullying causes trauma and stress to people. We understand the issue and we will focus on tackling it.
“Hopefully, in time we will not remain at the sixth spot but beyond 100 in terms of cyberbullying,” he said.
Hamzah said the government would push for greater awareness on the five pillars of the nation under the Rukun Negara – Belief in God, Loyalty To King and Country, Supremacy of Constitution, Rule of Law, Courtesy and Morality.
He said reinstilling and getting people to practise the Rukun Negara in their daily lives would help overcome many issues that were appearing in cyber cases.
He said the Rukun Negara came about after the security issues that erupted in the 1969 riots due to misunderstanding among the races.
“We have to reinstil the Rukun Negara not only for the people to know but to practise it,” Hamzah added.
