The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia’s Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) has suggested setting up a nationwide, one-stop anti-bullying portal accessible to all.
The OCC said the portal should be child-friendly, multilingual, and accessible to children with disabilities and include sign language videos, text, and audio options.
“It should also enable children to report anonymously to ensure their safety, and to track the status of their reports.
“The platform should provide step-by-step guidance and direct links for emergencies, mental health issues, school problems and cyber incidents, connecting users to the relevant authorities,” it said in a statement.
Such authorities, it said, would include the women, family and community ministry, the education ministry, Majlis Amanah Rakyat, police, the social welfare department, and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
“Additionally, it should link directly to social media platforms for takedown requests. Offline methods such as SMS and complaint boxes at schools and institutions should also be available,” it said.
The education ministry has a bullying complaints portal at aduanbuli.moe.gov.my, which directs users to an office telephone number at 03-8884-9325, a WhatsApp number at 014-8009325 or the SISPAA public complaints management system.
However, the SISPAA system lacks many of the OCC’s suggestions such as comprehensive multilingual language options beyond Bahasa Melayu and English, or anonymity, as it asks for identifiable information such as IC and mobile numbers when registering complainants.
The OCC called on the government, the education ministry, schools, teachers and the community to take urgent action to end bullying.
“Bullying is not in our culture; it is a violation of rights that must be eliminated,” it said.
