Police warn those caught with child sexual abuse material may escalate to more serious sexual offences

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Police have warned that individuals who access or possess online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) may escalate to more serious offences, including grooming, sextortion and sexual crimes against children.

Bukit Aman Sexual, Women and Child Investigation Division (D11) principal assistant director SAC Siti Kamsiah Hassan said the trend had been identified through investigations conducted by the division and the Malaysia Internet Crimes Against Children (MICAC) Centre into CSAM-related cases.

She said repeated exposure to CSAM could lead to behavioural addiction, a condition in which individuals are compelled to seek more content and spend longer periods accessing such material.

“Like other forms of addiction, individuals who are continuously exposed to CSAM may require increasingly extreme content to achieve the same level of satisfaction,” she told Bernama.

Siti Kamsiah said investigations had found that online communities sharing the material typically operated within closed groups, whose members often did not know one another personally.

“They are connected by a shared interest in such content. Over time, these groups form extensive networks, as each group develops its own connections and exchanges material with others,” she said.

She said demand for such content also fuelled exploitation, with some individuals selling the material to others for financial gain.

Siti Kamsiah said individuals involved in the possession, storage or distribution of CSAM came from diverse occupational backgrounds, age groups and social strata.

Previously, Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said CSAM cases recorded by the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) increased from 68 in 2024 to 152 last year, while 100 cases had been recorded so far this year.

She said the figures could represent only a fraction of the actual situation, as greater internet connectivity and the growing availability of content-generation tools had made such material easier to produce and disseminate.

To address the threat, Siti Kamsiah said the PDRM continued to intensify enforcement operations to detect individuals involved in CSAM-related offences, while also carrying out victim identification processes involving images or videos seized so that rescue operations could be undertaken as quickly as possible.

At the same time, she said the introduction of the Online Safety Act 2025 (ONSA) was seen as an important step in strengthening the country’s ability to tackle online sexual crimes, including those involving CSAM.

She added that previously, cooperation between digital platforms and the authorities had largely depended on voluntary basis, resulting in longer delays in obtaining information and removing criminal sexual content, including CSAM.

She said ONSA places clearer responsibilities on digital platforms to comply with Malaysian laws, thereby facilitating the process of obtaining account-holder information, tracking suspects, identifying victims and removing harmful content more swiftly. — Bernama