JULY 15 – As the number of statutory rape cases involving newfound ‘friendships’ through mobile chat applications have doubled over the past year, Marie Laure Lemineur, the head of ECPAT, an organisation dedicated to fighting sexual exploitation of children, expresses that the solution to this problem is a shared responsibility among lawmakers, parents, and children themselves.

“Technology may have increased the scale of rape in Malaysia but the exploitation of a child is still a human behaviour. It is not technology that rapes a child but another individual,” said Lemineur. “The risks online are not the same as its harm; parents need to educate their children the proper methods to avoid the dangers of online exploitation.”

In June, R.AGE released ‘Predator in My Phone’, a documentary detailing several undercover female journalists who posed as underage victims being groomed by child sex predators through WeChat, a popular mobile chat application. Unicef defines ‘child grooming’ as the act of building up an emotional connection with a child, be it through the virtual or real world, to gain their trust for the purpose of sexual abuse or exploitation.

The documentary received public attention through Facebook, which led to a pledge for an anti-grooming law initiated by R.AGE and Unicef.

“Children should receive the same protection online as they do offline,” said Chua Choon Hwa, Deputy Undersecretary, policy division of the ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM).

“In light of the growing number of online child exploitation, we must establish a proactive legislative framework that would give our police and child protection officers the tools to ensure vulnerable children are protected and the offenders are prosecuted,” he adds.

“With the anti-grooming law, we can charge the perpetrator for two offenses; for the crime [of rape] and for grooming,” said the Head of Sexual Investigation Unit, DSP Tan Gee Soon.

“The Sexual Investigation Unit is currently drafting a proposal for the law, which will be modelled after Singapore’s anti-grooming law.”

DSP Tan revealed that WeChat remains the most frequently used chat app by predators because of its user-anonymous function, which makes investigation and regulation almost impossible. WeChat also allows for users to search and connect with other users within the proximity, allowing easier access for predators.

Philip Ling, principal at Digi Telecommunications shared on how children need to understand the difference between security and safety. “Security is when an online server protects your rights in the cyberspace, but safety is your personal decision to over-share online, or add people you do not know.”

“Grooming is especially different because it isn’t hacking. It’s a voluntary decision to accept their [predators] request and connect,” said Ling. “Digi aims to communicate that it isn’t about setting up firewalls, but instilling proper knowledge to our children to recognise exploitative risks online.”

Together with the Ministry of Educations, CyberSecurity Malaysia, and Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Digi has gone to 1,700 schools over the last six years to educate children on cyber safety.

Since the documentary, the petition for an anti-grooming law in Malaysia has now gathered 5,404 pledges, in expectation that at 50,000, lawmakers would take further action.

To take the pledge, head over to http://rage.com.my/pledge-form/.

* James Lee is a final year Mass Communications degree student in Petaling Jaya.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.