Trigger Warning: Please be aware that the following information may be difficult to read and may affect you. If you are a survivor, please make sure you take care of yourself and ensure you have someone you can talk to.
Acts of abusing or exploiting a child via technological means.
Online CSA and online child sexual exploitation involve the use of information and communication technology as a means to sexually abuse and/or sexually exploit children.
These crimes are a subcategory of CSA and child sexual exploitation. CSA is defined as contact or interactions between a child and an older or more knowledgeable child or an adult who could be strangers, their siblings or persons in positions of authority to them such as a parent or caretaker, where they are used as an object for the older child’s or adult’s sexual needs.
Child sexual exploitation can be defined as CSA and/or other sexualised acts with children that involve an exchange of some kind. These exchanges may be fiscal in nature, or may also be exchanges of affection, food, drugs or shelter.
It is important to note that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has drawn distinctions between abuse and exploitation. Sexual abuse becomes sexual exploitation when a third party benefits by making a profit from a sexual activity involving a child such as CSA material or prostitution.
The differences are further highlighted by the commercial and non-commercial aspects of child abuse and exploitation.7 The International Labour Organization defines child sexual exploitation as the exploitation by an adult of a child or an adolescent, female or male, under the age of 18, accompanied by a payment in money or in kind to the child or adolescent or to one or more third parties. Commercial sexual exploitation is committed for monetary or other forms of economic profit, while non-commercial exploitation is when the acts are done for personal gratification. However, it is important to remember that these two aspects may overlap.
Although the advancement of technology has greatly assisted humankind, it also facilitates the commission of abusive and exploitative acts and catalyses the rise of new types of CSA and exploitation. Perpetrators are able to hide behind virtual walls while networking with children to groom them, cyberstalk them as well as to promote child sex tourism and trafficking.
Online child sexual grooming is similar to child sexual grooming, but is carried out virtually. This form of grooming happens when perpetrators use social media sites, instant messaging apps, dating apps or online gaming platforms to identify victims. The terms ‘solicitation’ and ‘cyber enticement’ are used interchangeably to describe the use of technological means by adult perpetrators to sexually abuse or exploit a child. The perpetrator may send hundreds of messages to various users or targeted child users and wait to see who responds. This is then followed by a series of actions that are deliberately carried out to establish an emotional connection to encourage the child’s compliance and maintain the child’s secrecy to avoid disclosure.
CSA material, more commonly known as child pornography, is defined in Article 2 (c) of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as “any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or representation of the sexual parts of a child, the dominant characteristics of which is depiction for a sexual purpose”. However, non-governmental organisations have proposed for the definition to be “visual depiction of a child engaged in explicit sexual conduct, whether real or stimulated or the lewd exhibition of the genitals intended for the sexual gratification of the user, and involves the production, distribution and/or use of such materials”.
Although it remains in wide use, the term ‘child pornography’ is less preferred compared to ‘CSA materials’ as this better reflects the gravity of the abuse that the child is subjected to and stresses that the abusive and exploitative acts are carried out without the consent of the child. The children involved in such acts are victims if they cannot consent to participate. The 8COSPOL Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project (CIRCAMP), for example, advocates that “[a] sexual image of a child is ‘abuse’ or ‘exploitation’ and should never be described as ‘pornography’”. Pornography is a term commonly used to describe the consensual sexual acts engaged in by adults the recording of which can be distributed legally for the general public.
9On the other hand, child sexual abuse materials may come in many forms such as photographs, magazines, books, drawings or sketches, movies, videotapes, online encrypted files, computer disks or recorded audios. These materials depict a child engaged in a sexually explicit activity recorded in still pictures or in video format. However, with the increase of Internet use and development, CSA materials are also now part of live streams which are real-time transmissions of video and audio that allow the audience access without them having to download files. It also allows members of a large scale audience to engage with each other over watching the sexual abuse of a child. Tracing is difficult as the livestreams are impermanent and expire after a set duration.
Cyber-harassment is the intimidation, repeated or otherwise, of one individual by another or by a group committed through technological means. Some common examples of cyber-harassment are aggressive emails or instant messages with or without damaging pictures or texts posted via an online profile. These could escalate to sexual-extortion (sextortion) or kidnapping. Sextortion is sex-related extortion on the Internet whereby the perpetrator uses information and pictures collected through online contact with the victim to blackmail them into making more sexually explicit content or to meet the perpetrator for sexual purposes.
This may even escalate to the perpetrator threatening the victim and their families by harassing them or by sending threats through emails, instant messaging, social media profiles or other forms of electronic communication. A common occurrence with sextortion is when the perpetrator manipulates images in a way that attaches the victim’s face to sexually explicit images or videos which in actuality involve other people (deepfake). Perpetrators may also be harassing victims through third-party websites or by contacting the victim’s family, friends, teachers and/or even employers.
Cyber-bullying, on the other hand, is the use of technological means to harm a victim or their loved ones, and can take place via social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms or the use of mobile phones. Common examples of cyberbullying are:-
Although this behaviour commonly occurs in school, it may happen outside of school as well.
Cyber-stalking is a process that involves multiple acts carried out using technological means to cause distress, fear or alarm. It is repetitive and includes acts such as locating the victim, surveying the actions or routines of the victim as well as harassing and manipulating the victim. Cyber-stalkers are known to make contact with their victims using the online sources of information that they have gained. They may lure the victims in with a false sense of intimacy or security using the vast amount of information that they have gained access to online.
This occurs when a child comes across or intentionally views harmful content online. This harmful content could be sexually explicit, violent or of any other nature that may adversely affect the child’s development. Harmful content can be in many forms such as audio, video, graphic (anime, cartoons or drawings) or even written. Although such content may not necessarily be illegal, it does have the ability to negatively influence children. Some common examples of content that can be easily accessed online are:-
Children are normally exposed to harmful content in pop-up advertisements, emails from spam operators or spam lines, contact as a result of queries through search engines and/or deliberate searches stemming from curiosity. Exposure to online pornography is prevalent among adolescents, and it is common for children who have been accidentally exposed to harmful content to exhibit signs of stress. As children and adolescents are naturally curious about the harmful content that they may have come across, parents, guardians and teachers may use age restriction settings and digital barriers to prevent children from further access to such content.
Children who have experienced online CSA and exploitation may display a range of varying behavioural and emotional reactions. Many of these reactions are similar to that of children who have experienced other types of trauma, and may include:-
However, there are certain age-specific character/behavioural changes which can be seen in children who may have been exposed to sexual harm. Younger children might engage in traumatic play whereby they may re-enact some or all aspects of the traumatic experience. For example, a child may act out that they are running away from a ‘bad person’ over and over again. The act or play may not fully model the acts of sexual abuse that have occurred, but these remain changes and reactions that you want to keep an eye out for. Some children may react by talking about their body in a negative way such as labelling it ‘hurt’ or ‘dirty’. These traumatic reactions may escalate in adolescence whereby the children would be more likely to develop substance abuse. An adolescent avoiding traumatic reminders may also withdraw socially and develop self-harming or suicidal tendencies.
Research has repeatedly shown that online CSA and exploitation can have a very serious impact on physical and mental health, as well as later sexual adjustment. Depending on the severity and number of traumas experienced, sexual abuse can have wide-reaching and long-lasting effects. Those who have suffered multiple traumas but received little parental support may develop post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Their ability to trust adults to take care of them may also be jeopardized.
Sadly, when children do not disclose sexual abuse and/or do not receive effective counselling after they do, they can suffer difficulties long into the future. On the other hand, children who have the support of an understanding caregiver and who receive effective treatment can recover without suffering long-term effects.
Online CSA and exploitation are governed and regulated by multiple documents of law ranging from the Penal Code to the SOAC and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA).
Below, we look into relevant crimes under the respective laws and the legal ramifications they entail in Malaysia.
Online child sexual grooming is primarily regulated by the SOAC under Sections 11, 12 and 13 which in essence prohibit any form of sexual communication, even in jest or under pretence, or communication that involves meeting up with a child with the intention to sexually abuse them. This is further explained in the Key Takeaways of the Sexual Offences Against a Child Act 2017 section.
CSA material, legally recognised in Malaysia as child pornography, is prohibited by the SOAC. By virtue of Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, the SOAC prohibits the production, distribution, consumption or use in any way of CSA materials. Each legal provision is explained in detail under the section Key Takeaways of the Sexual Offences Against a Child Act 2017 section.
Malaysia does not have a specific law against cyber-bullying. Reliance may instead be placed on the 10CMA, specifically Section 233 which **dictates that sharing any obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive content is an offence in Malaysia. **
Victims can lodge a report by contacting CyberSecurity Malaysia via:
Cyber-stalking is not described in depth by any legislation in Malaysia. However, 11Section 509 of the Penal Code does criminalise stalking by prohibiting anyone from insulting the modesty of another person by uttering words or making any sounds or gestures or exhibiting objects with the intention that the sound, word, gesture or object is seen by the victim or intruding on the privacy of the victim.
No specific law governs cyber-harassment in Malaysia. However, victims are generally protected by the CMA. 12Section 233 of the CMA dictates that anyone who communicates with or without disclosing their identity and with the intention to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person through their electronic devices continuously, repeatedly or otherwise commits an offence in Malaysia.
The lack of specific regulation for online CSA and exploitation has proven to be harmful to our society at large, as 13Cyber-harassment and cyberbullying are gaining prevalence in our society. We support the Sexual Harassment Bill Campaign organised by All Women Action Society (AWAM) and encourage you to also push for the Bill to be passed. Check out the campaign here!
Monsters Among Us (MAU) is a non-profit organisation that combats systemic violence against children in Malaysia through youth-led child rights advocacy.
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