KUALA LUMPUR: A parliamentary committee has criticised the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for its inadequate response to online harms affecting children.
The committee described MCMC's financial commitment and monitoring capacity as "far too low."
Parliament’s Special Select Committee on Women and Children Affairs and Social Development chairman Yeo Bee Yin (PH–Puchong) said the committee had reviewed MCMC’s financial statements from 2019 to 2023.
Despite the commission’s annual income ranging from RM1.2bil to RM1.6bil, its allocation for monitoring harmful online content remained minimal.
She said MCMC had only 56 officers assigned to monitor online risks, including pornography, exploitative content and harmful gaming platforms that children can easily access.
“What is even more worrying is that MCMC is not using automated systems or artificial intelligence in its monitoring work.
“Much of the process is still manual, relying on keyword searches,” she told the Dewan Rakyat during a briefing on the committee’s report on children’s digital safety and mental health.
Yeo said the weaknesses were particularly alarming given the committee’s findings that nearly 90% of adolescents who repeatedly engage in sexual activity were first exposed to pornography, social media content and other explicit digital material at a young age.
The report, tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Dec 2), identified three major gaps in addressing the impact of unregulated online exposure among children — limited enforcement capacity due to legal constraints, non-compliance by global platforms, and MCMC’s insufficient monitoring capabilities.
Yeo stressed that children’s mental health must be handled by trained professionals rather than left to overburdened teachers.
She said the committee wants the National Centre of Excellence for Mental Health (NCEMH) under the Health Ministry to be formally designated as the national focal point, working in partnership with the Education Ministry and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.
To support this role, she said NCEMH must be strengthened with more medical specialists and psychologists, alongside higher funding to handle rising cases involving children.
Among the centre’s core functions should be regular mental-health screening in schools, training for counsellors and teachers to spot issues such as digital addiction and social anxiety, referrals to Health Ministry or Welfare Department services when needed, data monitoring and analysis, and sustained awareness campaigns in schools.
She raised concern over the lack of financial commitment and capacity at MCMC, saying the gap has exposed children to harmful online content, including pornography and inappropriate gaming.
The committee’s third recommendation, she said, is for MCMC to immediately double its funding to strengthen its monitoring teams, adopt more advanced technology and improve human-resource expertise.
"MCMC should also channel part of its CSR resources to NCEMH to support prevention and treatment of digital addiction," she added.
Given parents’ central role in protecting their children online, Yeo said MCMC must also run a nationwide digital-safety awareness drive with the Education Ministry, including structured digital-literacy programmes for parents and mandatory practical sessions in schools on enabling parental-control features.
She added that with 68.1% of statutory rape cases reportedly involving consensual relationships between minors, the committee is also urging the Home Ministry to study amendments to Sections 375 and 376 of the Penal Code to ensure accountability is applied more fairly to both parties.
Yeo said the overall message is clear - digital safety and children’s mental health require urgent government action.
“We can no longer cite insufficient funding or staffing,” she said, calling on the Finance Ministry to provide dedicated allocations and on the Public Service Department to approve additional posts across all ministries involved.
