‘Slap Curfew On Teenagers To Keep Them Safe’

An MP wants a monitoring system to keep children under 18 at home at night.

KOTA KINABALU: Kalabakan MP Ghapur Salleh wants the federal government to impose a curfew on teenagers under 18 for their own safety.

He said that teenagers under 18 years should be banned from hanging out in public places after 10pm without parental guidance.

He said that it would help reduce crimes and social ills.

“I have already tabled the proposal in Parliament but I have not received a definitive answer yet,” he said.

Expressing his concerns over the current lifestyles of teenagers, he said the high numbers of those caught for crimes and social ills was worrying.

“Banning teenagers from loitering outside their homes after 10pm would be helpful.

“Our country has no monitoring system to prohibit teenagers from going out at night. Introducing a curfew system will help curb social ills.”

Educating Parents

Ghapur cited Australia which had successfully introduced the curfew system banning teenagers, aged 13 to 16, from leaving their homes without being accompanied by their parents.

Teenagers found flouting the rule, introduced in the early 2000s, are hauled up by the police and taken to the station. They would only be released when their parents come to fetch them.

The Australian government has said the move was aimed at countering the increasing number of teenagers who were found “drinking, using drugs and sniffing glue”.

A similar order was also issued in Thailand in 2007. Bangkok’s metropolitan police reportedly issued a directive prohibiting children under 18 from leaving their homes after 10pm without justified reasons.

The ban was aimed at preventing youths from hanging out at night and committing crime or becoming crime victims.

Teenagers caught hanging out at night in Bangkok without valid reasons would be taken to the police stations where their statements would be recorded. Their parents would be called to pick them up.

Ghapur, however, felt that the Australian system was sufficient to educate parents and control the teenagers.

“I believe we need a system like the one in Australia… it will help educate parents to be more sensitive.

“Teenagers who are brought to the police station would only be released once their parents come,” he said, adding that parents must be alert to their children’s movement.

Frightening Reality

In August last year, an online report quoted Bukit Aman CID chief Bakri Zinin as saying that in 2009, police recorded 6,048 juvenile criminal cases compared with 5,114 in 2007.

Staggering still was the fact that 208 rapes cases and six murders were committed by teenagers between 13 and 15 years old.

Teenagers, aged between 16 and 18, committed 616 rapes and 47 murders, according to the statistics, and these numbers are known to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Social workers note that many incidents of rape go unreported in Malaysia for fear of the perpetrators.

Many also believe that delinquencies begin at school in the form of truancy, smoking and vandalism.

- FMT