The Malaysian police have come up with a technologically advanced idea to make sure the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">coronavirus</a> does not spread in the country. Police officers are using drones to identify people with high body temperatures in public areas.

To test body temperatures, the police department is using drones which can check temperature from a safe distance. These drones can detect high temperatures as high as 20 metres above ground.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/too-soon-to-say-if-lockdown-in-england-will-end-as-planned-says-health-minister-hancock-389772">Too soon to say if lockdown in England will end as planned, says Health Minister Hancock</a>

Once the drone lays its glare on an individual with high temperature, it emits a red light to alert the authorities and the police officers to take necessary steps.

This method has been adopted after the country's health director-general warned that most&nbsp;of the new infections were a result of unknown contacts.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/hiv-woman-had-covid-19-for-over-6-months-which-mutated-30-times-study-389719" hreflang="en">HIV+ woman had COVID-19 for over 6 months which mutated 30 times: Study</a>

"One of the reasons is the emergence of new variants in the community which have higher infectivity and mortality rates," Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.

The drones have been put to&nbsp;make sure most&nbsp;of the ground area can be covered in surveillance. "Although we have 157 monitoring teams, they move from one location to another. They are unable to monitor every location at once, including detecting symptomatic individuals in public places," Rohaimi Md Isa, police chief of Terengganu state told local media.

This has also come at a time when the country has entered a strict lockdown, during which only two people from a house can step outdoors to buy essentials, consult medical help or engage in a non-contact sport. Schools and shopping malls continue to stay closed while manufacturing units have been allowed to operate.

The Malaysian police have come up with a technologically advanced idea to make sure the coronavirus does not spread in the country. Police officers are using drones to identify people with high body temperatures in public areas.

The Malaysian police have come up with a technologically advanced idea to make sure the coronavirus does not spread in the country. Police officers are using drones to identify people with high body temperatures in public areas. To test body temperatures, the police department is using drones which can check temperature from a safe distance. These drones can detect high temperatures as high as 20 metres above ground. Also read | Too soon to say if lockdown in England will end as planned, says Health Minister Hancock Once the drone lays its glare on an individual with high temperature, it emits a red light to alert the authorities and the police officers to take necessary steps. This method has been adopted after the country's health director-general warned that most of the new infections were a result of unknown contacts. Also read | HIV+ woman had COVID-19 for over 6 months which mutated 30 times: Study "One of the reasons is the emergence of new variants in the community which have higher infectivity and mortality rates," Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement. The drones have been put to make sure most of the ground area can be covered in surveillance. "Although we have 157 monitoring teams, they move from one location to another. They are unable to monitor every location at once, including detecting symptomatic individuals in public places," Rohaimi Md Isa, police chief of Terengganu state told local media. This has also come at a time when the country has entered a strict lockdown, during which only two people from a house can step outdoors to buy essentials, consult medical help or engage in a non-contact sport. Schools and shopping malls continue to stay closed while manufacturing units have been allowed to operate.

Malaysia: Police using drones to check body temperature in public places

Most complaints of child sexual abuse in Malaysia do not lead to successful prosecutions, largely due to weaknesses in the nation&#39;s criminal justice system, police, lawmakers and child welfare groups say.

According to classified data Malaysian police compiled and shared with Reuters, 12,987 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to police between January 2012 and July of this year. Charges were filed in 2,189 cases, resulting in just 140 convictions.

The data doesn&#39;t show how many people were involved, or what happened in the cases where there were no convictions after charges were filed. No details were disclosed in the cases where there were convictions.

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<h5>Child rights advocates have long pushed the government to publicly disclose data on child sexual abuse to increase awareness so action can be taken to address what they call a growing problem</h5>
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A veil was lifted in June when a British court handed Richard Huckle 22 life sentences for abusing up to 200 babies and children, mostly in Malaysia, and sharing images of his crimes on the dark web.

The reason the Malaysian government doesn&#39;t publish child sexual abuse data is because it is protected under Malaysia&#39;s Official Secrets Act. The government provides data on child abuse only at the request of a member of parliament.

&quot;We don&#39;t want people to misinterpret it,&quot; said Ong Chin Lan, the head of the Sexual, Women and Children Investigation Division of the Malaysian national police. The government doesn&#39;t want to unduly alarm the public about possibly high numbers of child abuse cases, she explained.

It is unclear how Malaysia&#39;s number of reported cases compares with its neighbours, some of whom are also reluctant to disclose a high incidence of child sexual abuse.

Thailand&#39;s government declined to provide data to Reuters. A senior health ministry official, who did not want to be identified, said it could &quot;make Thailand look bad&quot;.

Cambodia, long known as a destination for travelling paedophiles, also does not disclose official data.

Criminal Justice weaknesses

Weak policing and child protection laws make it difficult to punish child abusers in Malaysia, leading to inadequate investigations and low convictions on the reported cases, according to officials and child welfare groups Reuters interviewed.

They also say a significant number of child sexual abuse cases are never reported because of taboos around child sex abuse and mistrust of authorities.

In 17 years of operation, PS the Children, Malaysia&#39;s biggest NGO dealing with child abuse, has seen zero convictions on the cases it has handled, its founder Madeleine Yong told Reuters.

&quot;There needs to be improvement in the criminal justice system if we want to encourage more people to report, otherwise we will re-victimize the child,&quot; she said.

Ong at the sexual crimes unit said police take every case of child sexual abuse seriously and &quot;all cases are investigated in detail&quot;.

Police blame weak laws and rules governing court evidence that give little weight to children&#39;s testimony as the reason most cases never result in charges.

Malaysia does not have a law specifically prohibiting child pornography and defines rape narrowly as penile penetration. &quot;Grooming&quot; - touching and befriending children as a prelude to sexual abuse - draws no legal penalties. &nbsp;&nbsp;

By contrast, Indonesia&#39;s parliament has passed legislation authorising chemical castration, minimum sentences and even execution for convicted paedophiles. Thailand introduced stricter laws against child pornography last year.

A Child Sexual Crimes bill, expected to be introduced to parliament by the end of the year, would widen the definition of sexual crimes to include online abuse, and make such crimes easier to prosecute. It would also set up a special court to deal with child sex abuse cases more quickly.

The Dark Web

Foreign paedophiles could be targeting Malaysia as other countries around the region strengthen child protection laws and step up enforcement, some experts said.

Snow White Smelser, programme officer at the child sex offences team in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime&#39;s (UNODC) East Asia headquarters in Bangkok, said paedophiles compare notes and share information online about countries, where they can operate most freely.

Elena Martellozzo, a London-based criminologist who specialises in child sex abuse on the internet, said Huckle could have chosen Malaysia &quot;because it was not on the radar, or perhaps it&#39;s where he found it easier to get work permits, visas and some work opportunities&quot;.

Typically, children are sexually abused by someone they know - a neighbour, a relative, a caregiver, or someone like Huckle, who according to court testimony groomed children in an impoverished ethnic Indian neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur.

But increasingly, paedophile activity is moving into the online world, police say.

Australian detectives who investigate paedophiles in the region believe Malaysia has become one of Southeast Asia&#39;s biggest centres for the transmission of child pornography on the Internet.

Team Argos, the Australian detective unit that found Huckle in the dark web in late 2014, made a startling discovery from the team&#39;s scouring of online paedophile networks: the unusual number of internet addresses in the Kuala Lumpur area transmitting child sexual abuse material from the dark web.

The dark web is a vast virtual space within the Internet, which requires special encryption tools to access.

The Brisbane, Australia-based detectives found 1,000 transmissions of child pornographic materials from the Malaysian capital over a 24-hour period last year, according to Argos data provided by the UNODC.

It was the second-largest transmission location in Southeast Asia after Bangkok&#39;s 1,800 - Bangkok&#39;s population of 8.2 million is more than four times that of Kuala Lumpur&#39;s.

The Malaysian capital is a &quot;high concern&quot; location for the distribution of child sexual abuse materials, said Smelser at the UNODC.

Ong at the child sex crime unit said Malaysian police can&#39;t properly monitor the encrypted paedophile networks. &quot;We do not have expertise in handling the dark web. We get alerted from our counterparts overseas,&quot; she said.

(Reuters)

12,987 cases of abuse were reported between January 2012 & July 2016. Charges were filed in 2,189 cases, resulting in only 140 convictions

Most complaints of child sexual abuse in Malaysia do not lead to successful prosecutions, largely due to weaknesses in the nation's criminal justice system, police, lawmakers and child welfare groups say. According to classified data Malaysian police compiled and shared with Reuters, 12,987 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to police between January 2012 and July of this year. Charges were filed in 2,189 cases, resulting in just 140 convictions. The data doesn't show how many people were involved, or what happened in the cases where there were no convictions after charges were filed. No details were disclosed in the cases where there were convictions. Child rights advocates have long pushed the government to publicly disclose data on child sexual abuse to increase awareness so action can be taken to address what they call a growing problem × A veil was lifted in June when a British court handed Richard Huckle 22 life sentences for abusing up to 200 babies and children, mostly in Malaysia, and sharing images of his crimes on the dark web. The reason the Malaysian government doesn't publish child sexual abuse data is because it is protected under Malaysia's Official Secrets Act. The government provides data on child abuse only at the request of a member of parliament. "We don't want people to misinterpret it," said Ong Chin Lan, the head of the Sexual, Women and Children Investigation Division of the Malaysian national police. The government doesn't want to unduly alarm the public about possibly high numbers of child abuse cases, she explained. It is unclear how Malaysia's number of reported cases compares with its neighbours, some of whom are also reluctant to disclose a high incidence of child sexual abuse. Thailand's government declined to provide data to Reuters. A senior health ministry official, who did not want to be identified, said it could "make Thailand look bad". Cambodia, long known as a destination for travelling paedophiles, also does not disclose official data. Criminal Justice weaknesses Weak policing and child protection laws make it difficult to punish child abusers in Malaysia, leading to inadequate investigations and low convictions on the reported cases, according to officials and child welfare groups Reuters interviewed. They also say a significant number of child sexual abuse cases are never reported because of taboos around child sex abuse and mistrust of authorities. In 17 years of operation, PS the Children, Malaysia's biggest NGO dealing with child abuse, has seen zero convictions on the cases it has handled, its founder Madeleine Yong told Reuters. "There needs to be improvement in the criminal justice system if we want to encourage more people to report, otherwise we will re-victimize the child," she said. Ong at the sexual crimes unit said police take every case of child sexual abuse seriously and "all cases are investigated in detail". Police blame weak laws and rules governing court evidence that give little weight to children's testimony as the reason most cases never result in charges. Malaysia does not have a law specifically prohibiting child pornography and defines rape narrowly as penile penetration. "Grooming" - touching and befriending children as a prelude to sexual abuse - draws no legal penalties. By contrast, Indonesia's parliament has passed legislation authorising chemical castration, minimum sentences and even execution for convicted paedophiles. Thailand introduced stricter laws against child pornography last year. A Child Sexual Crimes bill, expected to be introduced to parliament by the end of the year, would widen the definition of sexual crimes to include online abuse, and make such crimes easier to prosecute. It would also set up a special court to deal with child sex abuse cases more quickly. The Dark Web Foreign paedophiles could be targeting Malaysia as other countries around the region strengthen child protection laws and step up enforcement, some experts said. Snow White Smelser, programme officer at the child sex offences team in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) East Asia headquarters in Bangkok, said paedophiles compare notes and share information online about countries, where they can operate most freely. Elena Martellozzo, a London-based criminologist who specialises in child sex abuse on the internet, said Huckle could have chosen Malaysia "because it was not on the radar, or perhaps it's where he found it easier to get work permits, visas and some work opportunities". Typically, children are sexually abused by someone they know - a neighbour, a relative, a caregiver, or someone like Huckle, who according to court testimony groomed children in an impoverished ethnic Indian neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur. But increasingly, paedophile activity is moving into the online world, police say. Australian detectives who investigate paedophiles in the region believe Malaysia has become one of Southeast Asia's biggest centres for the transmission of child pornography on the Internet. Team Argos, the Australian detective unit that found Huckle in the dark web in late 2014, made a startling discovery from the team's scouring of online paedophile networks: the unusual number of internet addresses in the Kuala Lumpur area transmitting child sexual abuse material from the dark web. The dark web is a vast virtual space within the Internet, which requires special encryption tools to access. The Brisbane, Australia-based detectives found 1,000 transmissions of child pornographic materials from the Malaysian capital over a 24-hour period last year, according to Argos data provided by the UNODC. It was the second-largest transmission location in Southeast Asia after Bangkok's 1,800 - Bangkok's population of 8.2 million is more than four times that of Kuala Lumpur's. The Malaysian capital is a "high concern" location for the distribution of child sexual abuse materials, said Smelser at the UNODC. Ong at the child sex crime unit said Malaysian police can't properly monitor the encrypted paedophile networks. "We do not have expertise in handling the dark web. We get alerted from our counterparts overseas," she said. (Reuters)

How Malaysia allows child abuse to go unpunished

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Malaysia: Police using drones to check body temperature in public places

How Malaysia allows child abuse to go unpunished