MCMC blocks 400 sites with content related to child porn

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has blocked 400 websites with content related to paedophilia and child porn. According to Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff, deputy women, family and community development minister, the ministry is working to boost and empower enforcement with the Royal Malaysia Police, Bernama said, more specifically the sexual, women and child investigation division.

It has also implemented service programmes surrounding advocacy, prevention, intervention, and social support to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse. According to Bernama, the ministry has also partnered with government departments, NGOs, academics and social activists to create the Plan of Action on Child Online Protection.

The Plan of Action on Child Online Protection 2015-2020 emphasises four key aspects of advocacy, prevention, intervention and support services. The action plan aims to not only protect children online but also acts as a catalyst in raising awareness and commitment of members of the public.

Separately, Internet giants such as Google, Meta, and Twitter, are also actively doing their part to block child porn on their platforms. Twitter, however, recently made headlines after the ads of some major brands including Coca-Cola and Dyson appeared next to tweets seeking child porn. This resulted in the brands pulling their advertisement from the platform.

According to Reuters, the ads appeared alongside tweets that contained keywords associated with "rape" and "teens". Coca-Cola's spokesperson told A+M previously that it does not condone this material being associated with its brands and has paused paid media on Twitter in the US and Canada until it has more facts from Twitter's investigation. Meanwhile, Forbes and Cole Haan said they are horrified to learn about this issue and demanded Twitter to fix it.

YouTube also previously encountered a similar challenge in 2017 when advertisers including Amazon, Cadbury, eBay, Mars, Diageo, Adidas, HP and Deutsche Bank pulled their ads from its platform. This was due to concerns that the ads were running on videos of children who were being targeted and exploited.

Without a doubt, brand safety is an issue that brands will still have to keep an eye on in this digital age. During the fourth quarter of 2021, DoubleVerify saw that video brand suitability violation rates were 53% higher than the average from the previous quarters of that year. On CTV, brand suitability violations spiked 156% during Q4 2021 when compared with the three previous quarters. In relation to holidays during the fourth quarter, DoubleVerify said spikes were more unpredictable day-to-day, as brand suitability incidents were more closely related to breaking news than holidays.

That said, there has been a slight improvement over all for 2021. DoubleVerify said in its 2022 Global Insights Report that there was a 9% dip in brand safety and suitability violations in 2021, as well as a 7% decrase in fraud violations. The majority of advertisers (61%) are also adopting a brand safety floor which identifies content that is considered unsafe and never appropriate for monetisation.

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