Too early to judge effectiveness of Child Register, says deputy minister

KUALA LUMPUR: It is too early to determine the effectiveness of the Child Register, which contains the database of offenders whose victims were children.
To date the child registry which was set up in January 2017, has the details of 107 people who were convicted for various crimes against children.
Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun was responding to a question by Wong Chen (PKR-Kelana Jaya).
"It is the responsibility of the employers to apply to check the records of potential employees. The information will be revealed with the permission of the education director-general," she told the Dewan Rakyat.
Azizah said the main objective of the register is to supply information on former convicts to employers who are recruiting staff for jobs that deal with children.
Later in a press conference, Wong raised concerns over the number offenders recorded in the register.
Pointing at the reported statistics, he said there were 22,135 reported child sexual abuse cases between 2010 and May 2017, of which 13,272 cases were child rape and the balance 8,863 other offences.
"This means there are approximately 2,500 child sexual abuse cases a year. Not that this does not include unreported cases, which is higher," he said.
Urging the ministry to buck up, Wong said it should prepare an annual report on offences involving child victims.
The Child Act (Amendment) 2016 was amended in July 2016 to include among others a Child Register to help employers run a background check on their potential employees.