PETALING JAYA: The ways children are exploited online are changing faster than laws can keep pace, with artificial intelligence (AI) giving predators new ways to manipulate children.
MCA information chief Chan Quin Er, who is also Wanita MCA secretary-general, said the issue had become more urgent following the arrest of eight teenagers aged between 13 and 18 years old under Ops Pedo between Sept 14 and 16 over the alleged production and distribution of child sexual abuse material online, including animated content.
“The investigation must take its course. But the case raises a question our laws have not fully answered: How do we respond when children are both at risk and alleged to be harming other children?” she said in a statement on Wednesday (Sept 30).
Chan welcomed the planned amendments to the Child Act 2001 to address peer grooming, but said the law must also keep pace with emerging threats involving AI-generated content, synthetic media and online exploitation.
She said generative AI had made peer grooming more complex, with children encountering AI chatbots, realistic avatars and synthetic media before they were able to recognise manipulation.
“Predators can use AI to create convincing peer personas or deepfakes to gain a child’s trust,” she said, adding that synthetic sexual imagery and voice cloning could also “blur boundaries and weaken a child’s instinct that something is wrong”.
“In view of these risks, the law must protect every child, including those who have harmed others,” she said.
Among the measures proposed by Wanita MCA are aligning the Child Act with the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, with clearer distinctions between coercion and exploitation and consensual conduct involving near-age adolescents.
She also called for rehabilitation to be the default response for children who offend, through structured diversion involving counselling, digital ethics education and family involvement.
“Serious and coercive cases should remain before the Court for Children,” she said.
On the role of technology platforms, Chan called for “Safety by Design” to be made enforceable, with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission setting specific obligations on AI-generated child sexual abuse material and AI features accessible to minors.
She also urged that affected children be given a statutory right to psychosocial support, fast content takedown and strict confidentiality.
Chan urged the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to publish a clear timeline for the proposed amendments and hold public consultation involving parents, educators, child psychologists and technology platforms before the amendments were tabled.
“Our children are growing up in a world their parents never had to navigate. The law must catch up, and it must do so without forgetting that it is dealing with children,” she said.
