KOTA BHARU:The government takes seriously the activities of websites and applications that are allegedly immoral and can affect teenagers and students in this country.

It includes an application to find friends who are said to promote a culture of relationships with older people or called 'sugar daddy'.

Therefore, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs), Datuk Ahmad Marzuk Shaary said there should be a firm action taken including deleting and blocking such applications from being allowed to be used in this country.

"If it is true as alleged, the government must take very strict action, this is a matter that is very sad for us and I say the government will impose harsher action on the parties involved.

"It should be stopped in this country, we cannot encourage the people to break the law with the application," he said.

He was met in conjunction with the launch of the Pandu Lalu Counter, Musaadah COVID-19 Pengkalan Chepa and the presentation of donations to taxi drivers at the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport at the Purnama Complex here today.

He added that under the religious agency, his party will impose stern action based on the existing jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Marzuk, who is also the Member of Parliament for Pengkalan Chepa, said the allegation of increasing the number of students involved with the application was also disappointing and it was still under investigation.

"The allegations are still under investigation whether they are true or not. The investigation does not mean we deny it.

"It is normal for the procedure as a government to take further action to have a paper that really proves the matter.

"We hand it over to the Ministry of Higher Education because it involves students and also for the action of the Malaysian Multimedia Communications Commission," he said.

The media previously reported that the President of the National Student Consultancy, Muhammad Amir Asyraf Mohd Sabru claimed that statistics showed that a total of 12,705 students of higher learning institutions were registered with the application to find friends among older men.

Based on records, it is alleged that there was an increase of more than 40 per cent in the registration of new users of the application due to the pressure of life during COVID-19.