Pedophiles often use Facebook and Instagram to look for victims

SHAH ALAM - Bukit Aman's Chief Assistant Director of the Sexual, Women and Children Investigation Division (D11) Assistant Commissioner Siti Kamsiah Hassan said data shows pedophiles usually work individually.

Commenting on their modus operandi, she revealed that pedophiles will first look for victims on social media such as Facebook and Instagram before moving to a more private medium after getting acquainted with the children.

She said the suspect will praise the victim to lure them into a relationship and give gifts and rewards to the victims through online games.

“This is more of a gentle approach such as persuading and deceiving because the victim is a child.

"The suspect will gain the victim's trust by being nice until the child is close to them so that they can easily persuade them to do the sexual acts.

"The suspect will then trick the victim into accepting the sexual acts as something normal and persuade the child that what they did was not wrong.

“The peak is when the child thinks it is okay to have sex because it is normal.

"This is what pedophiles will do to prepare the children that they are sexually attracted to,” she said.

Siti Kamsiah added that during that period - typically known as the grooming process, the victim would share pornographic pictures or videos naked.

She said there were cases when the child realised that they were being exploited for such behavior and wanted to get out of the suspect's control but they were being threatened for not listening to them.

“When the child is aware and uncomfortable, the suspect will usually threaten to spread pictures or videos so they will always have control over them,” she said.