KUALA LUMPUR: Stronger measures are being taken to deal with the issue of digital misconduct among school students, particularly incidents involving the circulation of explicit images following a case in Johor, says Fadhlina Sidek
To address this, the Education Minister said her ministry is currently amending the Education (Student Discipline) Regulations to ensure school disciplinary rules remain effective and relevant.
"The amendments aim to strengthen enforcement and provide clearer guidance for managing student misconduct," said Fadhlina in reply to a question from Muhammad Islahuddin Abas (PN-Mersing).
Muhammad Islahuddin had asked the Education Ministry to provide detailed guidelines for handling digital misconduct among students following the incident involving the circulation of explicit images at a school in Johor
A 16-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly using artificial intelligence (AI) to create pornographic images of his schoolmates and school alumni.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk M. Kumar said the cops had received eight reports against the teenager, who was arrested at 5pm on April 8 in Kulai.
Johor police also seized a phone believed to have been used to edit and upload lewd photos of his victims on social media, which were then sold at RM2 each.
In 2025, schools were issued a reminder to comply with all active circulars and guidelines, with emphasis on discipline-related issues, added Fadhlina.
Among them is on the guidelines on Values and Ethics for Social Media Use, focusing on issues such as misuse of apps, immoral content sharing, unauthorised recordings, cyberbullying, and privacy violations.
To encourage reporting of bullying, especially cyberbullying, the Education Ministry has established four main complaint channels, including public complaints management system (Sispaa), email, telephone hotline and via Whatsapp.
"Schools are also required to record cyberbullying cases in the ministry's character tracking system," she said.
The ministry, added Fadhline, also collaborates with the police through the placement of school liaison officers (PPS) to carry out awareness and prevention programmes on digital misconduct, including cyberbullying and online scams.
"The Ministry remains committed to ensuring students' online safety is on par with their physical safety in school, in line with the Safe School Programme and values-based character education," she added.
