Cops nab schoolbus driver who films child passengers

• UPDATED 2.18PM | The story has been updated to provide details of other videos he uploaded.

Police have arrested a bus driver who caught flak for filming his primary school passengers and uploading the videos on TikTok.

Johor police chief M Kumar said the 24-year-old man was picked up at about 3am in Simpang Renggam today.

The driver is being investigated under Section 15(a)(iii) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act and Section 15(2) of the Child Act.

Kumar said police seized a mobile phone from the suspect, which they believe was used to upload the videos that are being investigated.

He also urged the parents of the children appearing on the suspect’s TikTok channel to come forward and help facilitate the investigation.

“Investigation is being carried out and police are seeking cooperation from parents of the children featured in the videos to assist us.

“Members of the public, especially parents, are advised to monitor their children’s activities and their physical and emotional well-being so that any incident of sexual crime against children can be traced at an early stage to ensure the perpetrators can be brought to justice,” the police chief said.

Adding further, Kumar reminded members of the public to use their social media accounts wisely and not abuse the technology to break the law.

Under Section 15(a)(iii) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act, anyone found guilty of repeatedly or constantly following, watching, or contacting a child by any means for sexual purposes, can be punished with a maximum 10-year jail term or fined for a maximum RM20,000, or both.

Section 15(2) of the Child Act stipulates offences related to publishing images of children via any electronic device. It carries a punishment of a maximum RM10,000 fine, a jail term of no longer than five years, or both.

Inappropriate videos

Yesterday, Women, Family and Community Minister Nancy Shukri instructed the ministry’s Child Development Department to lodge a police report against the driver after netizens raised concerns over the content of his TikTok videos featuring primary school students.

In one of them, the driver referred to a young passenger as his "crush" and made comments about the children which many social media users found inappropriate.

"This behaviour is not accepted and shouldn’t be normalised.

"I have instructed the officers from the Child Development Department to file a police report immediately and we are ready to cooperate with D11 (Sexual Crimes and Crimes Against Children Investigative Department) of the Johor police headquarters," Nancy said on X.

The bus driver’s TikTok account has more than 640,000 followers with videos of him driving the bus, mostly showing his young passengers in full view in the background while sitting in the school bus.

In one video, he referred to one primary schoolgirl as his "crush" and showed the girl appearing bashful.

When replying to a commenter who said he made the girl blush, he said he was "waiting for her to grow up".

Videos of sleeping girl

He also frequently uploads videos of a younger schoolgirl who often falls asleep on the bus rides and refers to her as his "kesayangan" (darling).

In one video, which he has since deleted, he tried to wake the girl up by fiddling with her lips, but the girl continued sleeping.

He then moved her from a sitting to a supine position on the seat, stroked her face and removed her tudung. He also wiped her face and hair with the tudung.

He then proceeded to have a meal in the driver's seat while the girl continued to sleep in the background.

He captioned the video with the words “I Love You” and lyrics of a romantic love song accompanying the video.

The deleted video has since been reuploaded on X and TikTok by other social media users.

Commenters on his account claim the girl is his niece but Malaysiakini cannot independently verify this.

In another video, he helped the same girl remove the tudung and wiped her face with the tudung, while another video shows her sitting on the lap of a teenage schoolgirl who the driver says is her sister.

The latter video has been downloaded or saved by other TikTok users more than 18,000 times.

In a TikTok Live session yesterday, he also claimed he didn't know what the word "pedo", a colloquial term for paedophile, meant and that he is "only a content creator" who helps his mother with the school bus business.

He also thanked those who gave him constructive criticism but said he ignores those who make nasty comments.

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