Don’t let Malaysia become a breeding ground for child porn & paedophilia

Beliawanis MCA lauds the transnational police cooperation between Bukit Aman and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which led to the arrest of a Bangladeshi medical student Zobaidul Amin in Mantin, who has since been charged with 12 counts of producing and possessing child pornography under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 at the Seremban Sessions Court on 22 Sept 2022.

We note this is the second major apprehension of a serial foreign paedophile in Malaysia, the first being British citizen Richard Huckle, a prolific child sex abuser where over the dark web, he authored manuals on entrapping impoverished minors besides  boasting, sharing and swapping his abuse exploits via video and images with other ilk like him.

His arrest too was made possible after months of transnational cooperation between the Australian police and their Malaysian counterparts. These transborder collaborations indicate that Malaysia is serious in plugging the net of child sex offenders not only in Malaysia but internationally too.

It is disconcerting that these foreign nationals who are legitimately in Malaysia as overseas students or do gooder foreign missionaries, have misused their visas to operate from Malaysia to prey on underage boys and girls, locally or abroad. No Malaysian citizen desires our nation to gain a reputation of being the breeding ground and meeting base for paedophilia.

If there is an extradition request from US authorities for this Bangladeshi, we hope that Bukit Aman will oblige after all legal processes have been completed.

Parents and guardians are urged to inculcate among their children and charges, to never strip and perform gyrating acts before a camera no matter how much emotional persuasion, blackmail or even offers of financial reward.

Minors who do end up as victims of sextortion should not shudder reporting to their parents, guardians, police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. Adults and members of the community or authorities must not be judgemental on these victims of sextortion and paedophilia.

Our community and the authorities must come together so that perpetrators may be detained, their digital equipment seized, investigated, undergo digital forensic auditing and their websites shut down, and their vile acts be disrupted and terminated. Wanita MCA  and Beliawanis MCA believes that combined efforts individually, communally and globally can pre-empt and apprehend online child sex predators.

On 4 Sept 2022, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun informed that police data revealed that 106,764 Malaysian-registered IP addresses were traced to have shared child pornography from 2017 until August this year.

These staggering figures only involve those which can be traced. The actual figures would be higher given those operating in the dark web using private encryption codes.

-MCA online-