NGO on mission to prevent sexual abuse of children

KUALA LUMPUR: A nong o v e r n m e n ta l organisation, Ikram Malaysia, is on a mission to check sexual abuse of children and discourage the young from watching pornography.

After training by experts, mothers in the NGO are visiting schools to teach children on how to recognise and guard themselves against paedophiles, said Ikram chief administrative officer Zawiah Mohd Sari.

“They are also telling the children on the adverse influence of pornography. Many of the secondary school students have admitted to watching pornography on the Internet. We advise them to stop doing it and tell the teachers and parents on how to keep track of what the young do online,” she told Bernama.

Zawiah said Ikram members had visited 10 to 15 schools so far in the rural areas of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang and hoped to cover the whole country, but many more volunteers were needed.

“We have got psychiatrists and other experts who can tell the women volunteers about paedophile behaviour and traits and train them on how to lecture to young people,” she added.

Ikram committee member Haliza Abdul Malik, who helped to organise the Mothers Against Pornography campaign, said the schoolchildren were told about the way paedophiles would behave towards them – “how they speak, touch you and try to persuade you to do what they want”.

“And we tell them how they should protect themselves ... shout, run, speak to parents, teachers, people of authority,” she said.

Haliza said the campaign followed the revelation of paedophile Richard Huckle who pleaded guilty to 71 sexual offences, including rape, against children between the ages of three and 12 in Malaysia from 2006 to 2014, and was given 22 life sentences by a British court.

“The case shocked us and made us aware of the dangers that children face,” she said.

Haliza said Ikram, which promotes Islamic values, was also concerned with the easy access that children have to pornography.

“We are working with the MCMC ( Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission) to develop several applications to enable parents and teachers to keep track of what children do on the Internet,” she said. — Bernama