16 is the legal age of consent to sexual activity but that doesn’t mean a 17 y/o can be subjected to risks of child sexual exploitation/ child grooming as they’re still minors.

(TW: sexual abuse, child grooming)

Here’s what u need to know about Child Grooming Law in Malaysia: https://twitter.com/erjjaa/status/1310239324198248449

What/who’s a minor? A minor is someone who has not reached the 'age of majority'. The 'age of majority' is above 18 years old!

See: Age of Majority Act/Child Act

The guy in the video simply quoted “age of consent” from PC. Meaning, an adult having sex with anyone younger than 16 years old, is considered as statutory rape even if consented. But that provision only applies to sexual consent. It’s still illegal to prey on the underaged!

It’s blatant that a higher age of consent would make it easier to protect minors’ rights to prevent or prosecute sexual crimes committed against them.

Without it, it’s easier for offenders to prey upon young knowing they can later claim it was consensual to get away from any legal repercussions.

(Hope the legislative will push for this one day) but child marriage pun still legal in Malaysia lol so joke’s on us.

Fortunately, Malaysian law recognises law against sexual grooming in the Sexual Offences against Children (SOAC) Act 2017 which has been gazetted in 2017 to protect minors under the age of 18.

So IT IS ILLEGAL for an adult to prey on minors (read: under the age of 18)

What’s Child grooming?

Occurs when an adult befriends a child and creates an emotional connection with the intent to sexually abuse the child. Be it via communication, grooming, meeting in person.

I think people need to understand the context of this Act and how it protects children. I’ll explain the important key points but please seek a proper legal advice from legal experts.**

1. Befriending a child with an intention to commit a sexual offence is a crime!

So if a 30 y/o guy says “hey boleh kenal tak?” to an underaged = JAIL TIME BRO

or ask to meet you up in person and say “Hey, why don’t you come over to my house tonight ”, with the intention of molesting the child = GUILTY.

or even CATFISH as a younger person to meet you up!

2. Failure to report a crime, is a crime.

Yes, if you’re witnessing a crime but you do nothing about it, you may be liable for it.

So if you say “it’s not my business” or “I don’t want to get involved” get ready to pay fine lah. Remember, help the victims, not silence them.

3. Extra punishment if you’re someone the child trusts/ the child is legally under your care.

Who are these people? They can be your guardian, parent, or teacher.

So if a parent molesting his/her child, a teacher asking for sexual favours/ harassing students. This is for them

4. Sexual assault in this context may be physical or non-physical.

Physical = touching a child, getting a child to touch you, someone else, or even themselves.

Non physical = exposes a child to sexual or indecent situations. e.g showing a porn video/contacting/ stalking etc.

5. Presumption on age is not a defence.

You can’t use “eh but she looked 18” to defend yourself

unless of course, the offender took all reasonable steps to find out but that’s for court to decide.

It’s time to bring this video back

We should thank The Star's R.AGE team @thestar_rage for its dauntless work on exposing paedophiles and highlighted the need for anti-grooming laws and they did it. We now have our own law against sexual grooming since 2017. (As mentioned above)

If you’re a victim/ know someone who’s in need of help, make a police report or contact the following NGOs for further advice and assistance:  

Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) – @womensaidorg +603 7956 3488

All Women's Action Society (AWAM) – @AWAMMalaysia +603 7877 4221