A child rights activist has called for a change in mindset and culture among parents and teachers in order to better protect minors from predators on social media.
Yayasan Chow Kit co-founder Hartini Zainudin said it was common in Asian cultures to have the notion that children should be seen but not heard and should not “cause trouble”.
However, children were becoming exposed to predators online as they now spent more time on social media, with less supervision and in more isolation, at a stage of life where they seek validation and friendships, she said.
Haritini said parents and educators must both look beyond punitive measures and touch-and-go lessons on digital literacy, and instead foster open, ongoing conversations with children about predatory risks online.
“These conversations should encourage children to speak up while teaching them to recognise grooming behaviour, as opposed to punishing them by confiscating their phones, for example.”
“Punitive measures like taking away phones often backfire, and school lessons are too brief to resonate. What’s needed are safe, ongoing conversations where kids can ask questions without fear and where adults admit when they don’t have the answers.
“Kids shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions. And parents shouldn’t control conversations because they don’t know how to answer their questions. The same goes to teachers.
“I can guarantee that most parents, let alone kids, don’t know what good digital literacy is,” she told FMT.
According to the statistics department, the number of sexual crime cases involving children reported to the police increased by 26% to 1,567 in 2023 from 1,239 in 2022.
Recorded child grooming cases doubled, from two offences in 2022 to four in 2023.
In 2021, Utusan Malaysia reported about a social media application called Litmatch exposing users as young as 13 to lewd conversations with predators.
A recent check by FMT found that the platform still had weak age verification processes, allowing adults to pose as teenagers and for minors to access adult spaces on the app.
Underage users are purportedly propositioned by adults using coded slang, with conversations quickly escalating to sexual topics or moved to less moderated apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
Hartini said the government must ensure platforms like Litmatch had strict age verification systems in place, while enacting stronger laws to protect children in the digital space.
“The government must also invest in cyber-policing units trained in child safety. Without systemic regulation, children will always remain exposed.”
Who predators eye
Victor Goh, head of HELP University’s behavioural sciences faculty and psychology department, said predators often test boundaries with older teens because it provides “plausible deniability” if caught.
They particularly eye older teens who lack independence, such as those who cannot drive or have no income, as they are easier to control, he said.
“Beyond media, harmful cultural norms like accepting child marriage reinforces the dangerous idea that children are sexually capable,” the psychologist added.
Goh agreed that Malaysia’s conservative culture and the taboo around sex education left children of all ages vulnerable and called for comprehensive education on digital literacy, particularly recognising grooming behaviour and protecting oneself online.
He also called for reforms targeting both environmental and psychological factors. Schools, he said, should be strengthened with empathy training, better reporting mechanisms and opportunities for healthy socialisation through clubs and activities.
“It’s not just what we teach, but how we teach it. The more open our culture is to discussing these issues the better,” he said.
