KUALA LUMPUR: A social activist has dropped a bombshell by claiming that a local paedophile group is active on a well-known social media network.
Syed Azmi Alhabshi revealed that the group, which was active on the Telegram messaging app, comprised 751 participants, some of whom had made lewd and crude remarks to a picture posted of a young girl in a swimsuit.
Syed Azmi uploaded pictures of the exchanges on his Facebook account.
He said he received the screenshot from one of his Facebook followers after news of British paedophile Richard Huckle surfaced. The Briton admitted to 71 counts of abusing up to 200 Malaysian children.
“The reason I shared this screenshot is because I want Malaysians to know that paedophiles do not need technical knowledge to prey on victims,” he said.
“Some Facebook followers called me a paedophile after the posting. My message is that we need to talk about and rectify this (issue) now. We can create awareness through this posting to tell others that this is what paedophiles can do to our children.
“I am using this as an example to tell people that they prey (on children through) various ways; this is one of them. I blurred the screenshot. The sender (of the posting has) lodged a police report after (receiving) my advice.”
He said Malaysians had to be more sensitive about issues concerning children’s safety.
Syed Azmi said that while most paedophiles were tracked down via their activities on the Internet, the act of preying on children could occur outside the cyber realm.
“Messages alluding to sex, (which) adults make in the presence of
children, and advertisement taglines used to attract people that (carry insinuations about) sex can leave serious repercussions (on) society.”
He cited various taglines used in advertisements, such as “hisap sampai cantik” (suck until beautiful), “ketat rapat baru sedap” (tight is tasty) and “panjang puas” (long and satisfying).
He said there was a need to educate people on the inappropriateness of such messages.
“(If) people are curious, they (will) look up these taglines on the Internet. Similar cases are bound to happen. We have to talk about this but nobody seems to want to talk about it.”
The federal police’s Sexual, Women and Child Investigation (D11) principal assistant director Assistant Commissioner Jenny Ong Chin Lan said police were aware of the group and were monitoring its activities.
“I would like to remind the people that the Children’s Cyber Sexual Investigation Team is monitoring the activities of paedophiles in the country,” she said.