KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 – The number of sexual offences involving children has been on the rise since 2022, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DOSM’s) Children Statistics Malaysia 2025 report, which was released on November 3, 2025.
As recorded by the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), the total number of cases has not only increased overall from 2022 to 2024 by 58.1 per cent but has also gone up each year in that time span from 1,239 cases in 2022 and 1,567 cases in 2023 to 1,959 cases in 2024.
Every type of offence that falls under the category of sexual offences involving children also increased in that time period.
Child pornography shot up by 142.9 per cent from 28 cases in 2022 to 68 cases in 2024, while the offence of sexually communicating with a child rose by 33.3 per cent from 15 cases in 2022 to 20 cases in 2024.
Meanwhile, child grooming cases increased by 250 per cent to seven cases in 2024 from two cases in 2022.
While there were no meeting following child grooming cases in 2023, the number doubled from one case in 2022 to two cases in 2024.
Physical sexual assault on a child, continues to record the highest number of cases among all sexual offences against children, with 1,729 cases in 2024, which is an increase of 50.7 per cent from 1,147 cases in 2022.
Cases of non-physical sexual assault on a child also went up significantly by 189.1 pe cent from 46 cases in 2022 to 133 cases in 2024.
DOSM’s report this year did not include the numbers on sexual crime cases involving children in 2024 such as rape, molest, sexual harassment, incest and unnatural sex. The latest available figures from the report are from 2023, as reported by Ova last year.
Children Involved In Crime
The number of children involved in crime in 2024 fell by 4.2 per cent to 2,627 children from 2,743 children in 2023.
Bumiputera children accounted for the highest number of children involved in crimes at 82.2 per cent, followed by Chinese (9.0 per cent), Indians (4.9 per cent) and other ethnic groups (4.1 per cent).
Among sexes, boys constituted the highest number of children involved in crime last year at 2,424 (92.3 per cent). In comparison, 203 (7.7 per cent) girls were involved in crime in 2024.
However, the number of boys involved in crime has decreased by 14.6 per cent from 2,838 in 2022, while the number of girls involved in crime has increased by 16 per cent from 175 in 2022.
Children In Need Of Care and Protection
According to the Department of Social Welfare, the number of children in need of care and protection rose by 12.7 per cent from 8,536 children in 2023 to 9,624 children in 2024.
Girls comprised the majority of children in this category with 6,031 girls needing care and protection in 2024, compared to 3,593 boys in the same year.
However, the number of boys who required care and protection had a higher increase, by 15.2 per cent from 3,118 boys in 2023.
In comparison, the number of girls went up by 11.3 per cent from 5,418 in 2023.
Among ethnic groups, Bumiputera children composed the highest number of children in need of care and protection at 80.3 per cent (7,726). Other ethnic groups constituted 6.9 per cent (662), while Indians and Chinese made up the rest with 6.6 per cent (632) and 6.3 per cent (604) respectively.
