Malaysian social media is buzzing and red hot due to hot issues due to two major incidents involving school students. The fire started after the Zara Qairina Mahathir case became a massive movement and was then fanned by the case of a 10-year-old student found hanging in Senawang, Negeri Sembilan. The rape and stabbing cases that occurred within two weeks are the fuel that now makes this issue impossible to sweep under the carpet.
Politicians, experts, influencers and all carbon-based organisms with Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe share their personal opinions on how this issue can be resolved. The majority of people blame the influence of social media for why children in schools are now "corrupted and destroyed". Many people I have seen (including former ministers) want caning to be brought back with the excuse "when I was in school..." without a shred of evidence or logic that it was effective in resolving disciplinary issues when they were in school.
The government through the Ministry of Communications is moving forward with a proposal to enforce the use of eKYC to log in to social media accounts. Social media companies will also be required to ensure that users under the age of 13 do not have social media accounts.
Let me use my not-so-big platform to say that this is a very suspicious move. Why, before the reason for both these incidents was confirmed by the Police, does the government so quickly want to enforce a system that can be used to monitor users around the clock? Why want to normalize a system that has only been labeled draconian for five years because it is used in countries like China, North Korea and Vietnam.
I may be among the minority who feel that the responsibility of monitoring the use of electronic devices and the internet should be in the hands of parents. When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, there was no law preventing me from playing Mortal Kombat, watching VCRs with uncensored content or browsing the website of tiger shrimp.
Both parents monitored the video game session. I played Sega Megadrive on the TV in front and my father sat in the back reading Harakah. If dad is not there, mommy takes over the job of sitting behind and monitoring while sewing. The PC at home is always in the living room next to the phone (because the 56K modem telephone cable is short!). There is no time when I can use the internet without dad's eyes watching what is being done as if Sauron is monitoring Frodo
Father monitors children's activities - Decorative pictures
Modern parents should be more aware of the risks of unlimited device use. TV, video game consoles and computers with the internet are now in the hands of children. No longer static in the living room like when we grew up.
You can admit that you don't have time to monitor your child's activities at home because you yourself are addicted to the smartphone in your hand. No need to be ashamed and refuse to admit it. I myself raise my hand now and admit that I am guilty of neglecting my child at home because of my addiction to Reddit and Twitter.
Realizing this weakness, I use existing technology to monitor my child's activities. His Android smartphone is installed with Google Family Link. Through Family Link I set the applications that can be installed, see the application usage time limit, filter the websites that can be visited, see weekly usage statistics and track the child's location at all times.
Google Family Link
My son has no social media accounts at all because Gen Alpha sees social media as a “mommy daddy platform” that is completely unattractive. He plays Roblox with all messaging settings turned off to avoid communicating with strangers. The news of a 14-year-old running away with a 47-year-old boyfriend who is known in video games is very scary.
If the phone is brought to school for extracurricular activities or extra classes, I also activate what applications can be opened on school grounds through the built-in geofence feature. Roblox, Chrome and YouTube cannot be opened on school grounds at all.
All of these technologies that I mentioned are not new and I have already touched on them during the pandemic after some parents complained about their children being glued to their tablets due to home teaching and learning (PdPR). I was just a little surprised after doing a random poll in X a few years ago, the majority of parents do not use any monitoring applications like Family Link on their children's devices. So how do you control your child's activities? If you use the Sauron technique that I mentioned above, you are great.
So please back up your child's Android and iOS phones today. After a complete backup, please do a reset and install Google Family Link or Screen Time (if your family uses the Apple ecosystem fully). This process only takes 10 minutes. Put in place various filters, barriers and controls that you feel are appropriate for your child.
The power is at your fingertips. Use this power while it is still in your grasp. Do not subcontract the task of monitoring, raising, educating and caring for your child's activities to the government. You do not want to live in a Nanny State where the government controls every facet of life from birth to death. Do not mortgage your personal freedom and the next generation just because you are lazy to take care of your child.
