KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — Putrajaya must act immediately to stem the reported rise in juvenile sex crimes and set up counselling centres in both urban and rural areas for abuse survivors, Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) Wanita national chairman Wong You Fong said.
The Wanita chief called on the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to formulate plans to curb sexual abuse among minors through the latter’s newly established Child Development Department (JPKK).
“The authorities and the government could establish go-to counselling centres in more central locations and even the outskirts to enable counselling and recovery, a safe avenue that is easily accessible for both adult carers and child victims.
“As social media postings can become viral easily while sexual offences against children is a very worrisome issue in society, the JPKK needs to formulate strategic plans and execute solutions to tackle child sex fiends,” she said in a press statement today.
Wong also urged parents, guardians or caregivers to actively inform children of the dangers of such acts and to keep an eye on children’s online activity.
“As the police have highlighted that the misuse of social media becomes a gateway for abused kids to turn perpetrator, parents and guardians need to switch on or install safeguards on their electronic devices,” she added.
Additionally, Wong advised parents to teach their children to distinguish between safe and unsafe touches so children would be aware of what is acceptable and what is not.
She also warned that the statistics provided by Bukit Aman for a report by English national daily The Star today on underaged sexual predators may fall short of the real numbers.
“When a victim-turns-aggressor, this scenario suggests that normalisation of sexual abuse has befallen,” Wong said.
This morning, The Star reported that minors are becoming sexual predators themselves and abusing other children, some of whom are below the age of 10.
Bukit Aman’s Sexual, Women and Child Investigation Division’s (D11) principal assistant director Assistant Commissioner of Police Siti Kamsiah Hassan revealed that there were 912 reported cases of child sexual abuse by other children last year, 1,006 cases in 2022 and 731 cases in 2023.
