Existing support services for sexual abuse victims inadequate, weak

SHAH ALAM - There is a need for the current support services for young victims of sexual abuse to be improved as it was inadequate and weak, expert says.

Senior Consultant Paediatrician Datuk Dr Amar-Singh HSS said the Social Welfare Department (JKM), police and the Health Ministry were the government agencies empowered by the Child Act 2001 to protect children.

Not only that, there were also civil service organisations (CSOs) that were available to help children alongside CSOs-equipped courses and online training material.

Dr Amar said it was crucial for the government to assign professional social workers at JKM and train medical practitioners to be aware of their responsibility under the Child Act as well as to take children suspected of sexual abuse into temporary custody or safety.

He suggested a few ways to improve the support services including working on identifying children who were sexually abused and rescue them.

This required public awareness of the school and their attentiveness to detect the signs and symptoms of abused children in pre-school and schools.

He also said the government should improve the counselling and post-trauma services by having more professional counsellors, and adults needed to have more trust in their children in order for them to feel comfortable sharing what they experienced.

“Children should be trained and encouraged to inform reliable and safe adults about concerns of sexual abuse.

“This must include the ability to call for help outside the home or school using an effective helpline.

“Adults need to trust children when they disclose any sexual abuse and not dismissed it; this includes their mothers,” he told Sinar Daily.

He said what was needed at the moment was a widespread, routine, national prevention programme for sexual abuse.

He said sexual protective behaviours should become a standard part of the curriculum of all nurseries, preschools, schools and children’s homes with details on sexual abuse and how they should handle the situation when it happened to them.

“We need to teach all children ‘sexual protective behaviours’, in which I think should become a standard part of the curriculum of all nurseries, preschools, schools and children’s homes.

“This should start at the age of three to five years with explanation of appropriate and inappropriate touch; how to deal with unfamiliar or difficult situations (what to do when confronted with a person who tried to take advantage of them sexually); what to do if something bad happens to you; and to keep no secrets (always tell parents, teachers or doctors if anything unpleasant happens to you).

“Then as they grow older, we need to teach them about pubertal changes, peer pressure, pornography, dealing with social media and the right to say no,” he added.

When asked about the impacts of sexual abuse on children, he explained that the effects were tremendous especially if the perpetrators were from their own families.

He revealed that international community data and local studies he has conducted shown that the most common sexual abuse perpetrator were the fathers.

He said the primary impact on the children was emotional, such as a betrayal of trust since the father or family member or teacher who was supposed to nurture and protect them had done the opposite as well as experiencing anxiety, anger, post-traumatic stress and depression.

Since child victims were permanently scarred by sexual abuse, they also have fears for their safety and security as the abuse was usually recurrent for many years.

“As for the long-term impacts, some may end up with substance abuse, self-harming behaviours and serious psychological disorders.

“Others may repress painful memories but live unfulfilled lives due to unresolved hurts,” he said.

Following the shocking revelation of a teen actress in the country who allegedly suffered from sexual abuse from her dad at such a young age, Sinar Daily asked for his comment about parents who exposed their children to their own sexual activities.

Dr Amar said no parent should expose a child to activities that were sexual in nature.

He said parents who masturbated in front of their children were sexually abusing them as outlined in the Malaysian laws and it was damaging to the child and their long-term development.

Meanwhile, Suhakam Commissioner Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal when contacted echoed Dr Amar’s view that parents who watched pornographic materials and exposed their children to such activities were also a form of child sexual abuse online.

She said this also proved that many children were involved in child pornography because they were vulnerable and exploited.

“Many were forced. Child sexual abuse online comes in many forms, not only pornography.

“If you look at the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, it even includes grooming,” she said.

The Women, Family and Community Development said police received many sexual offences cases involving children from January to June – 47 cases of gang rape, unnatural sex (95 cases), incest (127 cases), obscenity (438 cases) and 641 cases of rape.

Meanwhile, when it comes to children being illegally used as pornographic material, Monsters Among Us founder Firzana Redzuan said it was important that Malaysians opened their eyes to how harmful child pornography could be to the children involved.

She said it was unfortunate that Malaysians have been known to enjoy consuming child sex abuse material online and the trend has been around in the country for several years.

She insisted that there was even misuse of the term ‘child pornography and Malaysians should be aware of this.

“There is a misuse of the term ‘child pornography.

“Usually if we discuss pornography materials, it involves two consenting adults who agreed to do the sexual action in the videos.

“However, in a context when a child is involved, it is very wrong to say ‘child pornography’ because no child can give consent to performing sexual acts in a video so we encourage people to use the term child sexual abuse material,” she added.

Earlier, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun said data furnished by the police revealed that 106, 764 IP addresses were recorded from 2017 until August this year for involvement in child pornography in about six years.

This has shown the rise of online sexual crimes involving children in the country.