Remember the case of the Malaysian math genius convicted in London for possession of child pornography? Or even the Richard Huckle case when he was arrested at an airport after authorities found child pornographic material on his electronic devices. It’s a dark and terrifying world we live in and I don’t understand how we don’t have this yet.
According to Deputy Multimedia and Communications Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin, the lack of funding is the reason why there is a lack of the technology to trace child pornography at Malaysian airports.
Zahidi said in response to Kasthuri Patto (PH-Batu Kawan) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that it requires allocation and budget from the Finance Ministry.
In adopting technology to arrest individuals possessing child pornography at airports, Kasturi had asked if the government would emulate other countries such as Australia.
“So, how serious is the government on this issue and is the government ready to invest in such technologies, as well as providing training to civil servants to track down paedophiles?” she asked.
Zahidi responded that Malaysia did not have the budget to do this yet. Why?
He said they could only buy the technology if they could use the extra funds under the Universal Service Provision (USP) program of the ministry, which aims to improve communication access to areas underserved by main telecommunications providers.
Kasthuri had raised the same issue with then Deputy Home Minister, Nur Jazlan Mohamed, during the former Barisan Nasional’s administration and he too said the same thing that the country could not follow what the Australian government is doing because there is no allocation.
She also said this is the government’s weakness for not having the political will to do it and added Malaysia was among the popular destinations in the region for child trafficking and paedophilia.
In recent years, some individuals, including Malaysians, have been arrested at airports in countries such as Australia or the United States after finding child exploitation materials on their phones. Dear Lord
The MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission) had conducted 125 investigations on pornographic content since 2018, blocked more than 2,400 porn sites and brought five cases to court. They will continue to take action on the basis of its complaints and ongoing monitoring
I really do hope the Finance Minister will take this seriously as this is an investment to protect our children.
