The disturbing New Straits Times investigative exposé on the emergence of local child porn actors is shocking but unsurprising.
It's tragically emblematic of the sexual and physical abuses children have suffered for eons.
If conscientious people are aghast at the spread of child pornography in the pre-Internet era, they would despair at its explosive proliferation.
About 130,000 web links actively operate, mostly in the dark web flourishing under the guise of "privacy".
To stop the uncontrollable online fusillade, child porn must be stopped in its tracks behind brick-and-mortar hubs.
That's exactly where police concentrated — a crackdown on the people possessing the repugnant material though the actual production is usually shielded in foreign jurisdiction beyond law enforcement's reach
In the wake of NST's expose, police, collaborating with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, raided homes in affluent, middle and low-cost neighbourhoods in Kuala Lumpur and five states, arresting 13 suspects in possession of 40,000 child sexual abuse material inside computers, cell phones and external hard drives.
Police have promised more follow-up action in driving out the perpetrators.
As successful as these spoils are, they barely pricked the global porn juggernaut.
But in the broader context of child abuse, it's depressing how ominous elements of sexual and physical molestation perseverate.
Unconscionable abuses by trusted family members, continual child trafficking and labour, children treated as chattel, their bodies given away for money and "cures" for diseases, female genital mutilation still fester.
Arranged marriages are implied in some enlightened Western nations, if not in practice, then in obscure laws.
To smother child abuse, bigger provenances have to be confronted: backward cultural norms and traditions, hardcore poverty, organised crime and indifferent governments.
Disparity in the age of consent between underdeveloped nations and the above-18 threshold in developed nations is a troubling loophole.
Human sex traffickers stalk impoverished parents forced to "sell" their youngest children to settle crippling debts and ensure family survival.
To hammer the social epistle that child abuse is inherently wrong, illegal and despicable, high-profile awareness campaigns must be drummed up.
But campaigners are bogged down by numerous complications. Studies on the hideousness of child porn and abuses still can't reinforce the understanding that this abomination must be stopped at all costs.
In the meantime, savvy parents delay online exposure to their vulnerable young while they are schooled on the real-world mores of socialisation and what constitutes sexual and child abuse.
At the same time, social media has to be further marshalled in the interest of child safety.
Harder still is to reform the ultra-religious and cultural patriarchy, and break organised crime vicious hold on trafficking children.
Still a daunting task, especially with the ultraconservative and puritanical, it's easier to pressure governments to toughen up child abuse laws, reinforced with meaningful anti-poverty measures.