Ikram rebrands its anti-porn drive

'The problem no longer concerns mothers alone; it needs to be addressed by the wider public.'

SERI KEMBANGAN: The organisers of the Mothers Against Pornography campaign has rebranded the initiative as Malaysians Against Pornography to reflect the seriousness of the problem across the country.

“The problem of pornography no longer concerns mothers alone; it is so widespread that it needs to be addressed by the wider public,” said Che Asmah Ibrahim, who heads the women’s wing of Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia, which is spearheading the campaign.

Speaking at a press conference, she said the campaign would widen its focus beyond the area of sexual harassment of girls to include education for boys so that they would not become predators.

“We often focus on safeguarding our daughters but we seldom focus on our sons,” she said. “We certainly do not want them to be predators.”

She said Ikram had a programme billed as “Love Myself” as part of the campaign. The programme, which began last month and is set to run until October, is aimed at creating awareness of the dangers of pornography.

Among the activities are courses on self-development, safe and unsafe touches, safe ways of surfing social media and how to fight pornography addiction.

Participation in events titled “Having the right to my own body”, “Surfing the internet wisely” and “Living a happy life without pornography” is free of charge.

There will also be a short video contest for children aged 12 years and below and a digital poster design contest for adolescents with cash prices to be won.

The highlight of the programme will be a marathon run on Oct 22 at Padang Merbok.

The Malaysians Against Pornography campaign was initiated after Malaysia was ranked eighth in the list of 21 countries where pornography is most watched.

According to Pornhub, the three top countries for online pornography surfing were Thailand, Hong Kong and Philippines. Ireland, Spain and Denmark were ranked at the bottom of the list.

Details of the “Love Myself” programme can be found at http://lovemyself.ikram.org.my - FMT