A report on the study, conducted by Ecpat International, a network of 102 civil society organisations from 93 countries, said Malaysia had no information available with regards to its plans to address the problem.
It said the development of the plan was widely interpreted to be indicative of a country’s commitment to address the phenomenon of commercial and sexual exploitation of children at large.
The other countries without such a plan of action were Brunei, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore and Timor-Leste.
The report was launched at a hotel here on Tuesday by Ecpat, whose name was conceived as an acronym of the phrase “end child prostitution and trafficking” in the 1990s.
It added that Malaysia also had no available information pertaining to cooperation and coordination mechanisms among various agencies to eradicate sexual exploitation of children in tourism.
This was despite the country having participated in the Asean Regional Education Campaign to Prevent Child Sex Tourism.
“For simplicity and efficiency, a single government entity should ideally be nominated as the lead agency for coordinating efforts to address this problem,” the report said.
The report also said there was no specific legislation in Malaysia to tackle child pornography although the Penal Code criminalised prostitution and the Child Act 2001 criminalised child prostitution.
It added that despite there being little data available, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore tended to be regarded as “sending countries” for child sex offenders rather than being destinations.
It said traditional destinations for child sex, such as Thailand and the Philippines, continued to draw significant numbers of foreign offenders.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia also appeared to be significant destinations.
Study: 150 kids forced into sex industry each year in Malaysia