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Kuala Lumpur. Police records show that rape cases involving children, which already comprised 70 percent of all rapes in 2006, have increased, according to the New Straits Times.

The number of victims below 18 hit 74.5 percent in 2009, after a steady rise since 2006. It dipped slightly last year to 73.9 percent.

Paedophilia 'is a serious problem in Malaysia', criminologist and psychologist Geshina Ayu Mat Saat said. She claimed that at least one out of five children has been preyed on by a pedophile.

Official records show that 10 per cent of victims were under 13 years old.

Last year, the nation was rocked by the shocking news that a Malaysian taxi driver had turned six teenage students into sex slaves after he threatened to make public the videos of him raping them if they exposed his heinous act.

The serial rapist was a 54-year-old man who had been working as a taxi driver for almost two decades and had no previous criminal record.

Sexual crimes pertaining to children in Malaysia, however, do not seem to be part of a more sinister web of syndicated exploitation of the young, according to the newspaper. 'So far, we don't have any reports of syndicated sexual exploitation and trafficking of children,'said Superintendent Ong Chin Lan, deputy head of the sexual and child investigation division, was quoted as saying.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.