Stopping sexual predators
SIX months before the world had even heard of Richard Huckle, The Star’s R.AGE documentary journalism team was already busy investigating sex predators who were targeting young children through mobile chat apps.
R.AGE journalists went undercover as 15-year-olds to meet up with these sex predators and film their encounters using hidden cameras. They set up over 15 sting operations, gathering as much evidence and material as they could, while maintaining contact with over 70 suspects on popular chat apps like WeChat and BeeTalk.
The result was Predator In My Phone, a multimedia documentary series which showed the dark, horrifying reality of child sexual crimes in Malaysia. The videos and stories came with a call-to-action, asking the public to support new laws against child sexual grooming, the number one modus operandi for sex predators in Malaysia.
Politicians from both government and opposition, various NGOs, as well as Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar all pledged their support to the Predator campaign.
R.AGE continued its campaign, releasing more episodes as well as shorter ‘mini-episodes’ on each sting operation they conducted.
The team also released a spin-off series called Survivor Stories, featuring brave survivors of child sexual abuse telling their stories to help others. The series has racked up over 3.7 million views on Facebook and YouTube, and the campaign’s Facebook page has gained over 35,000 followers – all in less than five months.
In August, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak set up a special task force to help stamp out child sexual crimes. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, who heads the task force, invited R.AGE to present its findings and recom- mendations from the Predator investigations. Her proposed Child Sexual Crimes Bill included many of R.AGE’s recommendations on child sexual grooming.
To ensure the new laws get passed in Parliament, and to raise more awareness, R.AGE launched a new campaign in October – #MPsAgainstPredators. Its objective was simple – get the Malaysian public to lobby their Members of Parliament to support laws against child sexual crimes.
A website (www.predator.my) was created to allow Malaysians to find their MPs on an interactive map and send them social media messages with the necessary details.
A number of celebrities and social influencers came out in support. Actress Lisa Surihani, social activist Marina Mahathir, YouTuber JinnyBoyTV, actress Marianne Tan and social media activist Syed Azmi took part in a full day of Facebook live broadcasts to launch the website, which fur- ther elevated the issue in the public consciousness.
Unfortunately, the Bill was not tabled before the last Parliament meeting adjourned on Nov 24. It is now expected to occur in March.
The good news is that many MPs are very confident the Bill will pass, and it’s only a matter of time. As Azalina said, this is an issue that’s beyond politics – everyone should come together to support it.
Watch the full Predator In My Phone documentary series at facebook.com/ ragepmp.