Multimedia University (MMU) law lecturer Bahma Sivasubramaniam said the Act should have a holistic approach encompassing the definition of the offence, the rights of the victims and complaint mechanisms.
“The Act should also cover rehabilitation of offenders, the role and responsibilities of social media and internet service providers, and alternative punishments to penal sanctions such as binding over, community service and counselling,” she said.
At a seminar titled “Child Online Protection In Malaysia”, she said in her research, more than 50% of Malaysians did not know how to proceed or identify the laws applicable to a cyberbullying complaint.
She added that existing laws were inadequate and unable to properly address the issue in a clear and specific manner.
The notable laws mentioned were the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, Computer Crimes Act 1997 and Penal Code.
“The existing laws are not enough and amendments would be a long process because there are too many different ministries involved. It’s too complicated,” Bahma said.
She also suggested that penal sanctions be the punishment of choice only when the offence was highly serious in nature and when there were no other options left, as some of the offenders may be children and unaware of what they had done.
“The Australian and New Zealand models are best suited to address cyberbullying. Their complaint mechanism is accessible and user-friendly. There is no requirement for a police report before the complaint mechanism is triggered.
“It gives assurance and confidence to children as it is not as daunting or intimidating as court proceedings,” she said, adding that these models will be explored more extensively in any discussion with the government.
Last year, a 20-year-old woman was believed to have hanged herself after a TikTok video of her and a colleague became the subject of ridicule on a Facebook page.
Seberang Perai city councillor P David Marshel, who first attended to the matter then, said the issue was part of the bigger cyberbullying culture which was often overlooked.
He said the government must act swiftly as there could be other cases of bullying that have gone undetected.