KUALA LUMPUR: The activity of downloading and online sharing of content involving sexual exploitation of children or child sexual abuse material (CSAM) 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) SAC Siti Kamsiah Hassan said 808 downloading activities of such content were detected in January and February this year.
“The figure is the total identified downloading activities and does not refer to the number of perpetrators as it is possible for one individual to download the content multiple times,” she told Bernama recently.
According to her, 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 from 2021 to 2023, police have opened 139 investigation papers involving cases of child pornography under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017.
Meanwhile, she said cases of sexual abuse, child abuse, and domestic abuse are increasing every year, particularly involving rape, sexual assault, and unnatural intercourse, adding that 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 at 3,455 cases, outraging of modesty (2,698), missing children (2,257) and child abuse (1,878),” she added.
