The 'explosion' of home-grown pornographic 'talent' is turning social media into a dangerous minefield of explicit content, putting our most vulnerable users — children — at serious risk.
While foreign names once dominated the scene, Malaysia now has local 'figures' who have cultivated their own and fast-growing band of followers.
The New Straits Times' month-long investigation revealed at least 20 social media and messaging accounts actively promoting what they claimed to be "updated", made-in-Malaysia content.
The increasing prevalence of such content is concerning, as research shows that early exposure to pornography can contribute to addiction and long-lasting psychological harm.
'DARKSIDE' ACCOUNTS
Social media accounts peddling pornographic content — known as "darkside accounts" — may be found across nearly all platforms, with Telegram, X, TikTok, Tumblr and Instagram being favourites due to their liberal content moderation and focus on privacy.
These homegrown pornographic talents would leverage the "live" function of these social media platforms to get smut-seekers to pay for replies to direct messages, entry to live sessions and access to private accounts.
Some will try to hook customers by publicly sharing snippets of their videos, stored in a third-party cloud account.
Subscription prices vary according to the type of interaction — from RM39 for a direct message reply to RM200 for a personal video call.
Those wishing to be accepted as a "friend" and gain access to the porn account may be charged an additional fee of up to RM100.
Rather than just offering "nude" calls and plain sex videos, some local creators have expanded their creativity by crafting storylines to fulfil their audience's fantasies.
"It (the number of local accounts offering explicit content) is rising at such an alarming rate that the graph's slope is exceptionally steep," confirmed Datuk Dr Mohamed Sulaiman Sultan Suhaibuddeen, chief network security officer at the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
He attributed the trend to the high demand for local content, coupled with the proliferation of social media platforms that provide a space for easy content sharing.
"Most (porn-seekers) like to watch local content nowadays. Those days, there wasn't much of this content. You would hardly see Malaysians exposing themselves.
"But now, whenever we confiscate a device, we often see more local content compared with content from other countries," he said.
What concerns the authorities is the growing presence of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and the large number of followers in these groups.
"In the past, no one would target kids, but now it's happening.
"Previously, we saw cases involving 9-year-olds, but recently we've even encountered 5-year-olds, which is deeply troubling.
"This shouldn't be happening, but it is. We need to find a way to address this issue urgently," he said.
Sulaiman said MCMC's monitoring had identified numerous groups with over 40,000 followers, many of whom are Malaysians, along with fans from Indonesia and Singapore.
The NST's investigation found that many of these accounts are created and operated by students to earn easy money.
Suspensions have little impact — these accounts would promptly return with new ones across multiple platforms.
However, not all darkside accounts are profit-driven, as some are just serving as outlets for erotic self-expression, or as a means to follow other explicit accounts while maintaining anonymity.
COVER FOR CRIMINALS
Telegram has become the go-to platform for these illicit "businesses".
Oftentimes, users of other social media platforms will be directed via links to Telegram groups that supposedly provide them access to a much larger pornographic collection, or allow porn-seekers to stay updated on the live schedules of their favourite "talent".
Although most Telegram porn groups are not regularly updated or have become dormant, finding an active one is relatively easy.
The active groups will regularly update their audience — some with almost 40,000 members — with promotional messages or announcements about the talent's readiness to "open for business".
This has been observed to typically start around 6pm onwards, after office hours.
Most of the common messages have a seductively inviting tone, such as "Open VC now sayang... jom yang nak order, video group private special I bagi diskaun. (Open a video call now, honey... For those who want to order, I am offering a discount for private group access.)"
SCAMMERS ON THE PROWL
With most Malaysian porn producers anonymously peddling their content on Telegram, this feature has also led scammers to prey on unsuspecting porn-seekers, adding another layer of crime to the underground market.
Offering "too good to be true" deals, such as RM15 for group access to an account, these scammers disappear once payment has been made.
This reporter fell into one such trap while trying to infiltrate a Telegram porn group. The attempt hit a dead end when the reporter paid the fee to a bank account as instructed by the group admin.
After making payment and sharing the receipt, the admin immediately ended all communication with the reporter.
With no information on the admin and the fear of incriminating themselves, scammed porn-seekers, especially paedophiles, would definitely keep silent to avoid drawing the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Payments are typically made to personal bank accounts or through QR links to e-wallets like Wise and Touch 'n Go, which likely belonged to mules.
While most of the mule accounts had female names, some even went the extra mile to set up a business account with a company name.
Another admin even demanded an additional RM40 after receiving the initial payment.
He claimed that this extra payment was a guarantee to protect the reporter from being "removed" from the group, besides acting as a deposit to ensure secrecy.
This admin's Telegram group was the real deal and as at press time, it is still being updated with mixed content.
TAILORED FOR ALL
The deep web of Malaysian pornography caters to a wide array of preferences — from paedophilia and voyeurism, to explicit content from the transgender community.
These porn producers operate on a layering system designed to maintain secrecy.
Their Telegram groups would publicly disseminate promotional messages with snippets of their content to capture the attention of those seeking porn.
Once an enquiry is made, the group admin would reply with a templated message offering their "packages", together with a link to another group that contains testimonials from their subscribers.
Porn-seekers can then choose packages based on their budget, ranging from RM50 for access to a single group, to RM180 for 12 groups.
Once payment is made and the proof is sent, only then will the admin provide access to the groups with porn content.
And do take note: Some screenshots of conversations between you and the admin may be taken and shared in the testimonial group to lure other porn-seekers.
POLICE MONITORING
In 2018, the NST carried a report on the Internet Crime Against Children — Children Online Protective Services (ICACCOPS), a United States-developed software used by the police to track porn purveyors in Malaysia.
The system identifies users' Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, locations, websites accessed, time spent and the uploading or downloading activities of pornographic material.
However, ICACCOPS depends heavily on capturing IP data, which leaves explicit content on social media platforms beyond its reach due to the lack of direct IP tracking.
During a demonstration of the system, the NST observed monitors displaying 2,500 IP addresses nationwide actively sharing explicit content, marked with balloons in seven colours to indicate different file-sharing platforms.
In a bid to better regulate the social media platforms, Malaysia has made it a requirement for them — including online messaging platforms — with at least eight million users to be licensed from Aug 1 this year.
The new regulatory framework, which was aimed at ensuring a safer online ecosystem, will be fully enforced from Jan 1 next year.