A Proposal for the Community Service Initiative Project By
The CSI: Miami Team: Boh Shi Yi, Liberty Woon, Ong Sher Rou and Sharon Chan
Online child grooming has been on the rise recently. In the UK alone, statistics show an increase by a third in the year 2019. These figures are merely just the tip of the iceberg, as many cases go unreported due to society’s taboo of shame. Especially in our Asian culture, there is the fear of shaming the family, stigma from society and victim-blaming. This is exactly what is happening to victims in Malaysia according to panellists at a sexual abuse and grooming awareness forum by The Star News (2018).
Our current society in Malaysia has a lack of awareness and understanding on the issue of online child grooming. Elizabeth Gnanapragasam (2017) from PS. The Children organisation pointed out that awareness is key to the prevention of sexual abuse cases and the ability of both children and parents to recognise key areas vital towards eradicating such crimes from society.
Therefore, we will be partnering with Cybersecurity Malaysia under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia to come up with an awareness proposal on the underlying issues of the digital world in Malaysia. We are required to come up with contents for them to bring forth awareness and change in society digitally.
Our content will be mainly targeting parents with young families via the Instagram platform. Using trending hashtags like #instamom and #malaysianmoms, there are plenty of young and tech-savvy mothers who post unfiltered content about their pre-teen/teenage children, unaware of potential dangers. Our secondary target is teenagers who are active digitally too. Hence, to educate, we decided to come up with 18 posts of a crime-themed layout, highlighting the dangers of the digital platforms. With 3 posts or 1 row as one topic, we will break down the information to the audience in stages of 6 topics:
1. What is online child grooming?
2. How does online grooming work?
3. Where does this happen and how can I prevent it?
4. What do your children need?
5. What should I do if someone is groomed online?
6. What should I do as a parent?
The strength of this method is that it is easier to get through to young adults as they are open minded and active in the digital world, propelling them to bring up strong future generations. At this phase of life, the family dynamics are closely bonded, with young children in close connection to their parents and their advice on the importance of online safety. Besides, many teenagers are heavily active on the Instagram platform and are interested in visuals and simple crash courses. However, the weakness of this digital method is the unavailability to reach the rural and poor areas of our community, but this project has the opportunity with its coverage that can extend to a worldwide audience.
We believe that the new generation of Malaysians will be aware of such issues and fight the vulnerability of ignorance and extend understanding and care to all victims. We believe that awareness is the key to prevent any child sexual abuse cases.