Employers can screen job candidates through Child Registry

KUALA LUMPUR: Employers can check on whether an individual has been involved in child-related crime through the Child Registry issued by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, said its Deputy Minister Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun.
She said the check would ensure that individuals employed in institutions involving children such as kindergartens, nurseries and day-care centres were not involved in any child-related criminal offences.
"Under the amendments to the Child Act 2016, we have introduced the Child Registry where names of (sexual) predators and those convicted of child crime obtained from the police are included in the list.
"So employers who want to hire a person in their institution, which involves schools, kindergartens, nurseries, can send those names to us to check whether they are included in the list as predators or not," she said during a question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.
She was responding to a supplementary question by Datuk Noor Ehsanuddin Mohd Harun Narrashid (BN-Kota Tinggi) who wanted to know the measures taken by the government to identify victims and predators of child sexual abuse in the country.
Azizah said checking through registry was a mechanism set up by the government to curb child-related crime in the country.
"Since the Act (Child Act (Amendment) 2016) was implemented, we have received numerous enquiries from employers across the country, especially institutions involving children to check whether the individuals they hired were predators or criminals.
"If the name is not listed in the registry, we will refer to the police to ensure that the individual is crime free," she said. — Bernama