This Disturbing Video Uses #MannequinChallenge To Highlight An Ugly Truth About Malaysia
Nauseating.
By Sadho Ram — 06 Jan 2017, 03:44 AM
Viral social media memes are often fun and without a purpose. 2016 gave us a lot of them. One of them was the #MannequinChallenge:
It was all over social media and everyone on the Internet was on it
The viral phenomenon that is believed to have been started by students from Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida, took the world by storm with pro athletes, celebrities, and politicians all doing their own version. Even we at SAYS got on it.
And right before the year 2016 ended, creative agency Naga DDBTribal dropped their own version. Titled "The sickest Mannequin challenge", the video truly lives up to its given name.
The less than three-minute-long video takes viewers on a tour of what appears to be a child brothel filled with under-aged victims and a whole bunch of perpetrators.
Watch the video below:
Created by Naga DDBTribal and Reservoir Lab for an NGO called Protect & Save The Children, the video puts the issues of child sexual exploitation and paedophiles in Malaysia out in the open.
According to Alvin Teoh, Naga DDBTribal's Executive Creative Director, the video is part of the agency's long battle against child abuse and effort in pushing for stricter laws.
They chose the Mannequin challenge to highlight the issue because, as Alvin told our friends over at Cilisos, "the message is to STOP the perpetrators in their tracks and keep them this way. To not allow them to advance any further in the abuse of children."
Child sexual abuse in Malaysia is a serious issue
According to data compiled by Malaysian police, 12,987 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to police between January 2012 and July 2016, reported MD.com.
Out of them, charges were filed in 2,189 cases, but it resulted in just 140 convictions.
More horrifyingly, child trafficking is so prevalent in Malaysia, that we are a source, transit and destination country for trafficking of women and children, according to data compiled by ECPAT International, an NGO fighting to end the sexual exploitation of children around the world.
So what can you do?
Citizens Against Child Sexual Abuse are running an online petition to call for new laws on sexual crimes against children. You can sign it here and help spread it.
Last year in January, Malaysia finally caught up with countries like the United States, South Korea, and Australia when it approved a registry for child sex offenders in the country. Understand what is a child sex offenders registry and why Malaysia had to fight for a Child Sex Offenders Registry for so many years, here: