She said although the situation was worrying, there was nothing the authorities could do about it.

“Many (victims) are ashamed and will not lodge a police report… there is nothing we can do. This worries me because it is only the tip of the iceberg… only a small number of cases are reported,” she said.

Rohani was speaking after serving as moderator in the panel discussion “Understanding Children Sexual Crimes – the International Perspective” at a two-day seminar on child sexual crimes here today.

She said the ministry, through the National Population and Family Development Board, organised various programmes to raise public awareness of sexual abuse.

“We meet the people and tell them to lodge police reports. Through the Pekerti programme, we teach children to be brave and to share information on sexual crimes.”

She said early sex education was important so that children were aware of what constituted a sexual assault.

“We do not want perpetrators to tell children that there is nothing wrong (in their actions), that it is fun… this should be prevented.”

Meanwhile, Bukit Aman’s Sexual, Women and Children investigation Officer DSP E Saroja said obtaining information from child victims was a challenge because they were young and could not understand the questions being asked of them.

“To resolve this, we use various techniques to make them feel comfortable with us such as by wearing civilian clothes and (working) through our counsellors,” she said.

Saroja said as of last year, there were 7,862 reported child sexual crimes including rape, incest and unnatural sex.

She said in 89% of the cases, the perpetrators were known to the victims.