“(This was) a heinous act. It needs the joint co-operation of all parties concerned for any intervention to be successful.
“It is not surprising that when a case like this occurs, a lot of media attention is given,” Mycaps President Toh Chin Lee said in a statement.
“However, the sad truth is that when the attention dies down, things will go back to the status quo.”
Toh urged Malaysians to be more aware of sexual predation and said that “anyone can be an abuser of children”.
He said perpetrators of child sexual abuse can come from all walks of life, regardless of age, race, and educational, socioeconomic or family background.
“Most paedophiles are male but female perpetrators have also been reported.
“Children need to be protected by their parents and adults who have a responsibility over them.”
Toh said besides monitoring their children’s whereabouts and knowing the people their children are with, parents should also be aware of any change in their children’s emotional state or behaviour.
Child victims of sexual abuse, he added, often communicate their distress non-verbally in the form of changes in mood.
These changes, Toh explained, include crying for no apparent reason, becoming more clingy, increased irritability, having frequent nightmares, crying in the middle of the night and sexualised behaviour, among others.
“Although these are not definite signs of sexual abuse, the presence of these symptoms should ring alarm bells and alert parents to get their children consulted professionally.”
Toh also said protection comes best in the form of education, and that parents and nursery teachers should teach children about “good touching”and “bad touching”.
“They should instruct children to inform their parents or teachers when they are touched in ways that make them feel uncomfortable.
“Children should be taught basic rules on keeping safe, including not to follow a stranger or accept food from someone they do not know.”
At the same time, Toh said child victims should always be told that abuse is not their fault, whether or not they consent to these acts.
The child, he said, should not be blamed under whatever circumstances, adding that parents need to provide positive support and help the child return to their daily routine as soon as possible.