Over 5,000 cases of child sexual abuse reported in the past 5 years

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 5,052 cases of sexual abuse involving children were reported in the past five years.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said around 70% to 80% of the offenders were those close to the victims, including their parents and guardians.
She said the government is looking seriously into the problem of child sexual abuse as it is closely related to pedophilia.
"Pedophilia is related to sexual abuse (on children). Statistics for the past five years has shown an increase of such cases, except in 2014 and 2015 which recorded a slight decrease.
"Although not all of the cases involve pedophiles, but sexual abuse cases shows that the threat of pedophilia needs to be given serious attention," she told Dewan Rakyat during the question and answer session.
She was responding to a question posed by Datuk Noraini Ahmad (BN - Parit Sulong) who asked for the latest statistics on the number of children reported missing since 2016.
Rohani said based on police statistics, 824 missing cases involving children below 18 years were recorded in 2016.
From the amount, only 11 cases were recorded through the NurAlert, a hotline established by the government to track cases of missing children below the age of 12.
She added there were also instances of sexual abuse cases involving children that went unreported as it involved family members of the victims.
Rohani said the Sexual Offences Against Children Bill 2017, when passed, would ensure that those who had failed to report cases of sexual abuse against children would be brought to justice.
"Let us together give our support to the bill so that all of those involved will be punished" she added.