BALIK PULAU: An engineer who was arrested last night for possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) has been remanded for four days.
The remand order was granted by magistrate Chia Huey Ting at the magistrate's court here this morning.
The man, clad in a white T-shirt and black pants, had his head down as he was brought into the courtroom.
Last night, police found a hoard of pornographic material, some suspected to be CASM, during a raid on the engineer's home in an affluent Bayan Lepas neighbourhood.
The man, when confronted by police over the material, admitted that he enjoyed looking at children as they were "fresh."
The raid at the house was part of "Op Pedo Bersepadu PDRM-MCMC" - spearheaded by Bukit Aman's Sexual, Women, and Child Investigations Division (D11) in cooperation with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) - to nab those suspected of possessing and distributing CSAM.
The case is being investigated under Section 10 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act for accessing child pornography and Section 292 of the Penal Code for possession of obscene materials.
It involved a series of coordinated raids across six states; Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Terengganu, Penang and Perak.
Last week the New Straits Times ran a series of reports on the rampant sale of Malaysian-made explicit content, including CSAM, on social media and messaging platforms.
The NST's investigation also showed how CSAM content was being sold for as cheap as RM1 per video, raising concerns among parents over the safety of their children.
Bukit Aman's Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division (D11) Principal Assistant Director, Senior Assistant Commissioner Siti Kamsiah Hassan had spoken on trends which showed that access to such pornography had made predators even more brazen, with some going to the extent of attempting to abduct children.
She also highlighted how easy access to pornographic content has led to severe addiction resulting in children, some as young as primary school pupils, becoming involved in creating and profiting from CSAM content.
The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had told the NST how cybercriminals trafficking in CSAM were exploiting advanced encryption technology to avoid arrest.
Malaysia, it said, has forged alliances with the FBI and other international entities to leverage real-time coordination of operations to shut down priority and high-impact targets.