School Stabbing Incident: Stop Sharing Social Media Content That Exposes Children’s Identities – CMCF

KUALA LUMPUR: Dangerous and sensitive content involving minors in the stabbing incident at a school in Banting, Selangor, on Monday, should not be shared on social media.

Chief Executive Officer of the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF), Mediha Mahmood, said that her organisation takes this issue very seriously as it violates the law, even if the content claims to be from news sources.

She said that mainstream media continue to display a responsible and cautious attitude in reporting the incident, but dangerous content continues to spread through social media, messaging applications, and unverified pages.

“Among the content shared is material that could lead to the identification of the child alleged to be involved, as well as personal information that should not be disclosed to the public.

“The legal provisions are clear, namely under Section 15 of the Child Act 2001, which prohibits any publication of information that could lead to the identification of a child involved in criminal or court proceedings.

“This protection applies because children are entitled to privacy, dignity, and the opportunity to undergo the rehabilitation process, regardless of the seriousness of the allegations they face,” she said in a statement here today.

Mediha said that a child or minor does not lose their legal protection rights merely because the allegations against them are serious.

“In more serious cases, we need to be even more careful because public anger cannot be allowed to become a permanent digital punishment against them.

“The dissemination of content that exposes children’s identities can have real and lasting consequences.

“It exposes the child, other affected students, schoolmates, and their families to public shame, psychological pressure, possible retaliation, and long-term effects that may persist long after public attention shifts to other issues,” she said.

Worsening the situation, she said that content that has already spread online is extremely difficult to be fully retracted, thus adding to the harmful impact on the children involved.

“This responsibility does not lie solely with the media but applies to every individual who chooses to share, forward, or re-upload such content,” she said.

Therefore, Mediha urged the public to stop searching for, sharing, forwarding, or re-uploading any content that exposes the identity of the child involved or their personal details.

“Curiosity is not a public interest justification, especially in matters involving children.

“Unverified pages and portals that claim to be news sources should immediately remove any content that exposes children’s identities or personal information and cease the publication of unverified personal material solely to gain traffic,” she said.

Berita Harian