Nurul Izzah: Act against online child sexual exploitation

PETALING JAYA: PKR deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar has called for immediate and coordinated government action to combat online child sexual exploitation.
She described the issue as a 'national disgrace' that demands collective responsibility from the authorities and society.
Her remarks come in the wake of the exposure of a Facebook group, Group Budak2 Sekolah ­Ren­dah, which had amassed more than 12,000 members who were allegedly sharing and passively viewing sexually explicit content involving primary school children.
'This is not just an alarming incident; it is a national disgrace.
'Shutting down the group is not enough. We need immediate, coordinated and decisive actions,' she said in a statement yesterday.
Nurul Izzah urged agencies such as the Communications Min­is­try, the Malaysian Communica­tions and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), police and the Women, Family and Community Develop­ment Ministry (KPWKM) to intensify efforts against digital predators preying on children.
She called on the MCMC and the Communications Ministry to disclose their current monitoring mechanisms and demonstrate their effectiveness in detecting child exploitation online.
She also urged the police and KPWKM to release public updates on the recent case and similar cases that have remained outside public scrutiny.
Nurul Izzah also demanded a progress report on the implementation of the Online Safety Act and a briefing in Parliament on the effectiveness of the D11 sexual crimes unit, including additional funding to enhance its operations.
'Malaysia must upgrade its systems to provide early warning for the public. To protect our child­ren, we must emulate global initiatives like the Europe-Latin Ame­ri­ca Initiative for the Safety of Children and Adolescents, a cross- continental police cooperation network tackling child exploi­ta­tion online,' she said.
Nurul Izzah also proposed public access to the Child Sexual Offen­­der Registry, which was established in 2019, not for public shaming but to safeguard communities.
She urged the Education Minis­try to strengthen its health syllabus with digital safety awareness topics.
'We applaud social media acti­vists and influencers such as Mekyun and others for bravely exposing online sexual exploitation to raise public awareness. It is time to band together,' she said.
The former Permatang Pauh MP also spoke of her own experience as a victim of online threats, when she received gang rape threats earlier this year.
She said the individual was formally charged with 11 counts of posting indecent and obscene comments about her on Facebook.
Nurul Izzah stressed that while legal tools exist to tackle online sexual crimes, many gaps remain in terms of enforcement, awareness and prevention.
According to official 2023 data, child sexual crimes increased by 26.5%, while child pornography cases surged by an alarming 139.3%.
'These are not just numbers. They are a collective cry for imme­diate, systemic reform, not just well-worded laws that gather dust,' she said.
Nurul Izzah announced that PKR is launching a grassroots campaign to focus on raising public awareness, creating safe spaces for children and strengthening community partnerships with NGOs and educational institutions.
'Parents, teachers, religious lea­d­ers, NGOs and the public must rise to protect our children from this growing digital threat,' she said.

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