Malaysia spot checking mobiles for porn

Malaysia has authorised police officers to carry out random checks and detain people with pornographic images found on their mobile phones.

Phone shop operators who provide downloading services for porn could also be charged for its possession, which is illegal in this Southeast Asian country, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

The offence carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and 50,000 ringgit ($A17,500) in fines.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar said the decision was in response to an earlier news report in the Malay-language tabloid Harian Metro that teenagers were recording images of mass sex parties and distributing them using their video-enabled mobile phones.

The report did not provide further details. Noh's office was not immediately reachable for comment.

Although pornography is illegal in this mostly Muslim country, enforcement has mostly been weak.


The government began taking a tougher stand recently, blaming rising crime and moral problems among youths - such as rape and teen pregnancies - on unfettered access to pornography, especially on the internet.

A salesman allegedly found with a laptop computer containing a downloaded pornographic movie was charged in May in an unprecedented move.

Recently, the country's largest telecommunications company, Telekom Malaysia, began airing television advertisements featuring web filters and software to help parents block access to web sites considered unsuitable.

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First a guy busted for trying to smuggle porn up his ass in Malaysia, now this! do you think things are getting out of hand here? I mean really... stopping people randomly and going through their phones to make sure there's no porn on them? WTF!!!

I think that was Singapore with the porn in the ass bust. But I have to say I am not surprized. In Hong Kong, they can stop you on the street with no reason or explanaton to check your ID. I was really shocked at that the first time it happened to my bf. And this is supposed to be a progressive first world country or port or whatever they call themselves.

Funny that they should be doing this now. They are running big ad campaigns trying to attract tourists, dont think this is gonna help with that. I have lived in Asia for several years now but havent been to malaysia and have no intention of going. There are enough friendly countries over here that are very welcoming to be going someplace like that.

Yeah, that's fucked up, guess I won't be going back to Malaysia or Singapore anytime soon. The strange thing is both of those countries are advertising really hard for tourists now, stopping people on the streets and checking their phones will certainly not help them.

Most Asian countries do have some sort of anti-pornography laws, but this is the first instance where I've heard of it enforced to this extent. If it gets really bad in the future I may have to move to Canada. :egg: