How Abim helps those obsessed with porn

An official of the NGO says it receives an average of 20 cases a month.

PETALING JAYA: Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) has voiced concern over the increasing number of people seeking its help for the rehabilitation of loved ones who are obsessed with pornography.

Speaking to FMT, Abim vice-president Fadhlina Sidek said the organisation received a monthly average of 20 cases of people who spend an excessive amount of time watching pornographic pictures and films.

“Most of those who are obsessed are men,” she said. “Usually, it is their wives who reach out to us.

“What is more worrying is that there are also many cases of youths and children who are obsessed. The youngest child we’ve had to help was an 8-year-old girl. The oldest was a grandfather who was more than over 50 years old.”

She said most of the cases came from the East Coast.

She defined “obsession” as the use of at least 15 minutes a day on pornography.

She said obsession with pornography was destructive to individuals and families as it would lead to relationship problems.

“Whenever we have a case, we will help the person through counselling. In Abim, we have clinical psychiatrists, medical experts and spiritual leaders to guide them.”

Fadhlina voiced concern over easy access to pornography and the failure of parents to do enough to prevent children from gaining such access.

“We have a shelter for pregnant teenagers, housing on average 15 people at a time,” she said. “When we ask them how they learned about sex, 80% of the time they would cite pornography.

“What’s worse is that many of them tell us the pornographic materials belong to their parents.”

She said this showed that young people were curious about sex and strengthened the case for sex education.

“We shouldn’t treat it as a taboo topic to avoid. When children can’t get answers, they will turn elsewhere for answers and this includes pornography.”

Fadhlina said Abim was actively carrying out sex education programmes nationwide. She said many attendees were initially shy but would be more receptive and show an eagerness to learn in subsequent sessions.

Abim’s programmes include topics on sexual abuse and harassment and dealing with such issues.

The government has been actively blocking pornographic websites since the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was set up. In 2015, it was reported that MCMC had barred access to more than 1,000 sites.

Last year, the government announced it would work with social networking app developer Telegram to crack down on those using the app to spread pornographic materials, especially child pornography. This followed a news report about the circulation of thousands of pornographic pictures and videos in Malaysian Telegram groups. -FMT