What’s next for Predator?
The #SayaSayangSaya town hall events are going to the grassroots to get people talking about online sexual grooming and Internet safety.
WHILE Malaysia is on its way to enacting child grooming laws and improve its child protection legislation, there are still many hurdles in the way of implementing an all-rounded approach to keep children safe.
Lack of awareness about Internet-related sexual violence is one such hurdle, as well as the difficulty victims face when speaking about their ordeals, like the threat of social ostracism.
That’s why the Predator In My
Phone team has been working with various government ministries on a long-term child sexual abuse awareness national campaign.
But it isn’t enough to just have a campaign – we knew it was important to reach out to as many young people as possible. So instead of waiting for them to come to us, we decided to go to them.
That’s how the #SayaSayangSaya town hall series, organised in collaboration with Unicef, Digi and WOMEN:girls, was born.
The nationwide series aims to raise awareness and prompt conversation on the issue of online sexual grooming and Internet safety among the Malaysian public, especially school children and adolescents.
To do that, it provides the participants a safe space to share their experiences, concerns and recommendations on Internet-related sexual violence.
The tour kicked off in Terengganu and Kuantan last week, where over 350 children, parents and teachers had the opportunity to have meaningful discussions about child sexual crimes and safety with experts from the Royal Malaysian Police’s Sexual, Women and Child Investigation division (D11), Federation of Reproductive Health Associations Malaysia (FRHAM), Digi and R.AGE.
To generate even more discussion, FRHAM also took the opportunity to talk about the importance of reproductive health education, highlighting the need for it in schools.
There will also be booths set up by D11 to highlight their Victim Child Centre facilities, and FRHAM state branches to show their programmes and materials on reproductive health education.
In line with #SayaSayangSaya’s aim to reach out to as many people as possible, the town hall will be heading to Kelantan, Kedah, Sabah and Sarawak over the rest of the year.
The town hall also welcomes online participation – those who can’t attend the town halls can watch the live streams on fb.com/ragepmp and drop their comments and questions there. For more information about the #SayaSayangSaya town hall series, log on to replyforall-my.tumblr.com.