26/05/2026

TUESDAY | MAY 26, 2026

5

More transparency needed to tackle child sexual abuse material

Ű BY FAIZ RUZMAN newsdesk@thesundaily.com

PETALING JAYA: Social media platforms should no longer be allowed to quietly police child sexual abuse material (CSAM) behind closed doors, digital consumer experts said, urging greater transparency through public child safety dashboards to show how such content is detected, removed and escalated. However, they emphasised that any public disclosures must remain anonymous and limited to broad trends to avoid exposing victims or helping offenders circumvent detection systems. Malaysia Cyber Consumer Association president Sirajuddin Jalil said the proposal is a “good idea” and could serve as a form of risk mitigation for cyber consumers, particularly as online threats involving children become

not be used to shift the responsibility from service providers to parents. It is merely to assist parents to monitor the website,” she told theSun . Noor Aziah, who served as Malaysia’s first Children’s Commissioner from 2019 to 2025, said the larger issue is whether Malaysia’s online safety framework and related code could be enforced effectively to ensure children were adequately protected online. She said platforms should prevent children below the age of 16 from registering or accessing accounts, investigate risky or dangerous online activity involving minors, remove harmful access points, and introduce special monitoring or warning systems for users aged between 16 and 18. – By Faiz Ruzman Communications and Multimedia Commission was finalising a safety code to curb CSAM under the Online Safety Act 2025, with implementation targeted for June. Citing police statistics, Teo said Malaysia recorded 152 CSAM cases last year, while 100 cases were reported this year as of the date of her statement, adding that the figures could be only “the tip of the iceberg”. Meanwhile, Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia CEO Mediha Mahmood said public child-safety transparency dashboards are worth exploring, but cautioned against reducing the issue to simplistic public case counters. “For child safety, greater transparency is good in terms of us knowing whether platforms are detecting harmful content, whether they are acting quickly enough, how they are dealing with repeat offenders and whether they are escalating serious cases appropriately. “However, I would be cautious about immediately treating a full public dashboard as the starting point,” she told theSun . Mediha said a layered transparency model would be safer, with regulators receiving sufficient detail to assess compliance, law enforcement accessing case-level information where necessary, and the public being given only general, non-identifying data. “The important thing is to avoid two extremes. I understand we don’t want to be given vague corporate reporting that simply says platforms take safety seriously. “But we also should not require public disclosures that may expose victims, compromise investigations or worse, help offenders understand how detection systems work.”

do not see the takedown action. The people who submitted the report may see the action, but others do not.” He said platforms should publish visible moderation data, including the volume of CSAM-related content removed, whether takedowns were initiated proactively by platforms or through public reports, and how frequently such material was detected. He also said platform-specific disclosures would be more meaningful than broad official takedown figures, which often combine CSAM with political, racial, religious and other harmful content categories. “If the platform itself has accountability and responsibility towards protecting users, then it could show transparency in its process of removing content, especially CSAM-related content. “For example, it could show the number of such content items removed daily. The public could then use that as a process to increase awareness.” Sirajuddin said the CSAM threat landscape is evolving rapidly with artificial intelligence, as abusive material could now be generated without children directly sharing explicit content. “The major threat of CSAM is digital material or content, either shared by victims or created by perpetrators, or predators. “Does the perpetrator convince or groom children to give content? Or could the content simply be created using AI tools? That is the question.” On May 18, after officiating at the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day celebration and the Girls in ICT programme, Communications Deputy Minister Teo Nie Ching said the Malaysian

o Public safety dashboards could boost social media platform accountability: Expert

increasingly complex. “The reality today is this: it is better to tell people than not to tell them. Every person has value, and when it touches family and children, the value becomes even bigger,” he told theSun . He added that public dashboards would strengthen platform

accountability, as most users are left in the dark about what happens after harmful content is reported. “There is logic. There is relevance. The dashboard proposal could be put forward so that the accountability of social media platforms becomes clearer. “When they take down content, we

Sirajuddin said platform-specific disclosures would be more meaningful than broad official takedown figures, which often combine CSAM with political, racial, religious and other harmful content categories. – AI-GENERATED IMAGE BY SYED AZAHAR SYED OSMAN/THESUN

‘Primary duty to prevent abuse must remain with operators’ PETALING JAYA: Child-rights experts have said any public dashboard tracking child sexual abuse material (CSAM) must not become a convenient way for social media platforms to shift responsibility onto parents while failing to make the internet safer for children. They said while greater on parents. “A public dashboard could help parents, but it must not make parents carry the burden alone. Parents should be able to see, in simple language, whether a platform is safe for children. Adib said any CSAM-related data released publicly must be handled with extreme care as every report carries risks of exposing victims. measured solely by how quickly abusive material was removed, but also by how effectively abuse was prevented in the first place. “Removing CSAM quickly is important, but it is not enough. Platforms must also stop abuse before it happens.

“The data must be handled very carefully because every case involves a real child. No dashboard should reveal anything that could identify a victim, such as names, images, usernames, locations or case details. “The data should only show broad trends, such as the number of reports, average removal time, action taken against repeat offenders and whether cases were referred to enforcement agencies. “The purpose is to make platforms accountable, not to expose victims or turn children’s suffering into statistics.” He added that platform accountability should not be

“For example, how fast the platform removes CSAM, how easy it is to report abuse, whether repeat offenders are blocked, and whether child accounts are protected by default. “However, the main responsibility must still be on the platform and the regulator, such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. “Parents need information, but they should not be expected to police the internet on their own.”

“This means they must detect grooming, sextortion, suspicious adult contact, repeat offenders and attempts to re-upload abusive material.” Meanwhile, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia legal scholar Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal said a dashboard should only serve as an additional monitoring tool for parents and not dilute the obligations of service providers. “If there is a dashboard, it should

transparency could help parents make informed decisions about online safety, the primary duty to detect, remove and prevent abuse must remain firmly with platform operators and regulators. Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Children’s Commissioner Dr Mohd Al Adib Samuri said public dashboards on CSAM could improve accountability but cautioned against placing the burden of online policing

Malaysian killed in Philippine building collapse KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian died after being struck by falling debris following a building collapse in Angeles city, the Philippines on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local bureau of fire protection. The victim, who had been staying at an apartment hotel near the building, was among four individuals confirmed dead in the incident, while 17 others remain missing. Three other victims were recovered from the rubble. Search and rescue operations are ongoing for the missing individuals,

Pampanga province. Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday confirmed that two Malaysians were affected by the incident, with one confirmed safe. It said it was currently ascertaining the status of the second Malaysian national. – Bernama

emergency response teams to support ongoing operations, Philippine News Agency reported. PNP chief Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. yesterday said police would also assist in the investigation into the collapse of the nine-storey building, which is still under construction in

according to the authorities. As of Sunday, at least 26 individuals had been rescued, with 24 from the collapsed building and two from the apartment hotel, Xinhua reported. The Philippine National Police (PNP) has activated and deployed search and rescue personnel, and