KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — With child sex crimes and child porn on the rise in Malaysia, the federal police have identified the increase of children below 18 as abuse victims as the new challenge for its investigators.

Channel News Asia (CNA) reported that the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman will focus on technical training for its officers and additional manpower to better tackle sex crimes in light of the recent concerns.

The federal police principal assistant director at the Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division (D11) Assistant Commissioner Siti Kamsiah Hassan said the latest statistics showed a slight increase in sex crimes with a growing number of those below 18 being sexually abused.

"There has been a slight increase year-on-year, but what is frightening or concerning is the percentage of victims who are children.

"In previous years, half to 60 per cent of sex crime victims in general were children. This year, it has gone up to 70 per cent,” she was quoted as saying in a feature report published on the Singapore-based news portal today.

Siti Kamsiah said that the growing ratio shows that for sex crimes, including those involving pornography, the main targets are children.

Such offences can range from producing and sharing child videos to sexual grooming as well as physical and non-physical sexual assault of children. Non-physical assault involves exposing a child to sexual or indecent situations.

Siti Kamsiah acknowledged that child pornography is a problem in Malaysia as it is a crime that is "very easy” to commit in an increasingly digital world, with victims who are easily influenced.

She explained that a majority of cases involve perpetrators who are known to the victims, including family members and friends.

"Most victims are aged between 10 to 15 years old, as this is when they start creating social media accounts and using them to communicate,” she was quoted as saying in the CNA report.

The senior police officer was commenting on the concerns based on last year’s statistics where police investigated 1,240 cases under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act, which is an increase compared to only 901 cases in 2018.

The latest statistics provided show that 959 cases were opened from January to August this year, already a higher monthly average than last year.

Besides that, the latest figures revealed that more people in Malaysia are also accessing and sharing child sexual abuse material.

According to police statistics, 49,621 Malaysia-registered internet protocol (IP) addresses were reported to have shared such material last year, more than a five-fold increase from the 9,017 addresses in 2019. The total for January to August this year is 27,051 IP addresses.

On the investigation front, the federal police cited a lack of manpower on the new police team tackling child pornography called the Malaysia Internet Crimes Against Children (MICAC).

MICAC was recently established last year and was tasked to analyse information, gather intelligence and conduct arrests in such cases.

At present, Siti Kamsiah said new team has only 69 officers for the entire country, where 31 are based at Bukit Aman in Kuala Lumpur, leaving only a small handful of officers to be based in the 13 states.

She pointed out that it was inadequate considering that the police are handling an increasing amount of sex crime cases.

"For instance, the police get tens of thousands of IP address reports each year from sources like Interpol, the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as foreign law enforcement agencies.

"These reports come with the child sexual abuse material that has been shared, and - in light of logistical constraints — officers must do an initial analysis of these images and videos and decide which are the most severe to be pursued.

"This material ranges from images of babies to older children, and I cannot deny that officers are affected emotionally,” she said.

Siti Kamsiah stressed that in the course of investigations, the officers must confirm that the material indeed constitutes an offence, before reaching out to internet service providers and telcos to get the details of an IP address owner.

"It is a time-consuming process, and it is only at this point that officers can move in for the arrest.

"Even then, the suspect might have already deleted the incriminating material, in which case they will get an advisory,” she told CNA on the challenges that investigators faced.

Siti Kamsiah added that from the thousands of reports police receive, investigators will then narrow it down to a small number that the officers are capable of investigating based on the expertise, logistics and manpower availability.

"To highlight the challenges police face, out of the 27,051 IP addresses reported to the police so far for this year, only 44 were investigated and 15 — or less than 1 per cent — ended in arrests,” she said.

Siti Kamsiah said officers investigating child sex abuse cases also need to have technical expertise to crack encrypted devices and navigate the dark web.

She said some officers also try to infiltrate private groups related to such material and must know how to evade detection by members constantly trying to sniff out moles by monitoring what others talk about.

"The police will continue to improve technical training for officers, work with other agencies and request for additional manpower to better tackle sex crimes.

"We will continue to do our maximum,” she said.

During Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s budget speech yesterday, he said a special unit under Bukit Aman’s D11 will be set up to counter child pornographic activities and cooperate with various agencies to identify those involved.

He said RM8 million will be allocated to strengthen the role of One-Stop Social Support Centres (Pusat Sokongan Sosial Setempat) as early intervention against mental health and domestic violence issues.

The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry will also set up a Child Development Department under the Social Welfare Department to give more comprehensive support to children, said Anwar in tabling the revised Budget 2023.