KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching wants the Ministry of Education (MoE) to fully investigate an incident that led to a sexually explicit video being aired during an online examination for second formers at a school here recently.
The former deputy education minister also urged MoE to keep a line of communication on the investigation open with the parents of the children involved and the public, and take proactive steps to ensure that online classes remain a safe platform for students to learn from.
“I am appalled and shocked at the experience shared by Form 2 students at a secondary school in Kuala Lumpur when an explicit video started playing on their screens while participating in a design and technology (RBT) exam conducted via video conferencing platform Google Meet.
“We were made to understand that the teacher in charge immediately ordered students to exit the virtual classroom, and conducted the exam online,” she said in a statement today.
The DAP lawmaker noted that the source of the video is unknown, but said parents who supervised their children taking the exam believed it was screened by someone with host access.
She urged MoE to take the matter seriously and address the issue professionally.
“Almost two years after the pandemic and conducting classes online, incidents like this should not be happening at all.
“In fact, where children are concerned, any content shared must be filtered carefully so the impressionable minds are not unnecessarily disturbed,” she said.
She said that sharing explicit videos with children is an offence under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, and that the government cannot underestimate the severity of the issue.
“We have been made to understand that the incident could be caused by an outsider obtaining the meeting link and therefore accessing the class to share contents that are inappropriate.
“The Ministry of Education should use all necessary resources and expertise in the ministry to ensure safety of students in an online class and to work on methods that can ensure content shared on Google Meet platforms are safe as well as to develop SOPs or guidelines that will help protect the online platform from being hijacked or hacked,” she said.
Several news agencies reported the incident happened yesterday at an unnamed secondary school in Kuala Lumpur.
According to media reports, the sexual video began playing on the screens at the start of the exam.
Online lessons and exams are still ongoing for lower secondary school students nationwide until later this month due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government has been expediting vaccination for adolescents between 12 and 17 years old so they can return to campus for in-person learning.
