Malaysian youngsters 'most frequent visitors to porn sites'

Kuala Lumpur, July 22 (ANI): A new study has found that young Malaysians aged 13 to 19 are the most frequent visitors to pornography websites.

According to Kosmo!, the study by Universiti Putra Malaysia's Social Sciences Institute (Ipsas) showed that 22 percent of the multi-racial make-up of respondents in the survey were Malaysian.

They also topped the list of those who liked to lepak (be idle) (15 percent), smoke (13.7 percent) as well as swear at people and play truant (11.5 percent) respectively.

"Playing truant used to be the dominant misconduct among Malay students. Now, it is viewing pornographic websites at cyber cafes," the Star Online quoted Ipsas director Prof Dr Md Salleh Hassan, who headed the research, as saying.

"These findings make it urgent for the Government to block easy access to the sites before they become a security threat to the nation," he said, echoing a similar warning made recently by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Dr Md Salleh lamented that it was disappointing that parents who were interviewed about their children's penchant for pornography sites denied the claims, despite the confessions made by the youngsters.

Among the other races, Chinese students were found to be more inclined towards gambling (9.5 percent) and consuming alcoholic drinks (6.2 percent).

Indian youths were found to be prone to cheating during examinations (10.6 percent) and picking quarrels with their teachers (7.6 percent). (ANI)