After having received training from experts, mothers in Ikram Malaysia are visiting schools to teach children on how to recognise and guard themselves against paedophiles, its chief administrative officer Zawiah Mohd Sari said.
“They are also speaking to children about the negative influence of pornography. Many secondary school students admitted to having watched pornography on the Internet. We advise them to stop doing it and have also told teachers and parents on how to keep track of what their students and children are doing online,” she told Bernama.
Zawiah said Ikram members have so far visited 10 to 15 schools in the rural areas of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang and hope to cover the whole country, although many more volunteers were needed for that to successfully take off.
“We have got psychiatrists and other experts who can tell the women volunteers about paedophile behaviour and traits, and train these women on how to advise children,” she added.
Ikram committee member Haliza Abdul Malik, who helped to organise the Mothers Against Pornography campaign, said the schoolchildren were told about the way paedophiles would behave towards them – “how they speak, touch you and try to persuade you to do what they want”.
“We tell them how they should protect themselves … shout, run, speak to parents, teachers, people of authority,” she said.
Haliza said the campaign followed the revelation of paedophile Richard Huckle who pleaded guilty to 71 sexual offences, including rape, against children between the ages of three and 12 in Malaysia from 2006 to 2014.
He was handed 22 life sentences by a British court.
“The case shocked us and made us aware of the dangers that children face,” she said.
Haliza said Ikram, which promotes Islamic values, was also concerned with the easy access that children have to pornography.
“We are working with MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission) to develop several applications to enable parents and teachers to keep track of what children do on the Internet,” she said