PETALING JAYA: Worries that children may be exposed to online sexual predators and concerns about the impact of social media on young school students are among the reasons experts say the government should enforce stricter social media regulations for the younger generation.<\/p>\n
They were commenting on Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching\u2019s announcement that regulations on social media usage for children under 16 are expected to be enforced as early as July this year.<\/p>\n
She said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) would enforce the regulations once implemented.<\/p>\n
She added that discussions with platform providers were ongoing under the Online Safety Act to identify the best ways to implement the regulations.<\/p>\n
Mental health expert Assoc Prof Dr Anasuya Jegathevi Jegathesan said excessive social media use could also affect young users\u2019 emotional well-being, such as falling into depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren may constantly check their phones, wondering who liked their story or reacted to their posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can make them measure how much attention they receive, which may lead to feelings of insecurity and low confidence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother damaging factor is that when parents expose their kids to social media, they are opening two ways where children are reaching out and outsiders reaching into your child\u2019s \u2018room\u2019 (personal space). These are predators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anasuya noted that in the end, parents play the ultimate role in teaching their children about safety when using social media.<\/p>\n
One way, she suggested, is for parents to make a child\u2019s room social media free.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt night, your child can be speaking to somebody who is disguised as your child\u2019s age but in reality, that predator is 45 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren under 14 should not have computers or the Internet in their bedroom after bedtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cComputers at home should be shared with everyone and be visible to guidance at home. Even game content should be monitored to look out for the age limit, as some games include adult content.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents should watch their kids online and keep personal details like addresses and phone numbers private to avoid public reach, including stopping them from creating channels to become popular,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
While supporting government regulations, Anasuya said it is the family\u2019s role to ensure children obey them.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Association for Education secretary Hamidi Mookkaiyah Abdullah, who also supports the government\u2019s move, said this helps protect children from harmful online content, including extreme ideologies and self-harm material.<\/p>\n
\u201cLimiting access can reduce problems such as cyberbullying and online exploitation too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe age restriction aims to shield them from these risks while supporting better mental and health development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamidi also pointed out that social media use affected students\u2019 learning and classroom focus by reducing sustained attention further.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe frequent notifications and habit of switching tasks will shorten their attention span,\u201d he said, noting that social media can be resourceful at times but should be regulated.<\/p>\n
However, he acknowledged that children who have access to gadgets would certainly be unhappy with this regulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome children might show tantrums of dissatisfaction or feel helpless. They might also give the excuse of needing to use social media to help them finish school projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile parents should spend more time with the children, teachers should also instil in them the need to be responsible and disciplined when it comes to social media,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Once social media accounts are banned, schools can create more face-to-face opportunities for engagement, Hamidi suggested.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be daily or weekly advisory or homeroom meetings for students to check in with teachers and peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchools can also have safer school-based digital alternatives, such as school-hosted communication platforms like class apps with teacher moderation, no public sharing, and strict privacy controls,\u201d said Hamidi.<\/p>\n
In addition, he emphasised that schools should strengthen social and emotional learning by teaching empathy, conflict resolution, and communication skills directly in the curriculum once social media is banned for those below the age of 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PETALING JAYA: Worries that children may be exposed to online sexual predators and concerns about the impact of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,93936,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-469450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-na","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}