Downloading of child sexual abuse content cause for concern, say cops

 

Principal assistant director of Bukit Aman’s sexual, women and child investigation division Siti Kamsiah Hassan said they are developing a data bank to curb downloading of child abuse content.

KUALA LUMPUR: Downloading and online sharing of child sexual abuse content remains a concern despite showing a downward trend over the past two years.

Principal assistant director of Bukit Aman’s sexual, women and child investigation division (D11) Siti Kamsiah Hassan said 808 cases of such downloading activities were detected in January and February.

“The figure is the total identified downloading activities and does not refer to the number of perpetrators as it is possible for one person to download the content multiple times,” she said.

She said police detected a drop in the activity, with 41,096 and 33,692 activities detected in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Siti Kamsiah said the division is developing a data bank to curb such activities, including storing information on incidents in the country and conducting awareness campaigns through talks and exhibitions.

She said police had opened 139 investigation papers involving cases of child pornography under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 from 2021 to 2023.

Siti Kamsiah also said cases of sexual abuse, child abuse and domestic abuse were increasing every year, particularly involving rape, sexual assault and unnatural intercourse.

From 2021 until last year, 38,424 crimes against children and women were recorded nationwide, with the highest being domestic violence cases at 19,487.

“This is followed by rape cases at 4,277, physical sexual assault (3,455 cases), outraging of modesty (2,698), missing children (2,257) and child abuse (1,878),” she said. - FMT