Internet addiction alarming, says Jailani

HULU TERENGGANU: Addiction to the Internet among Malaysians has reached an alarming rate, said Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Jailani Johari.

Jailani, who is Hulu Terengganu member of parliament, said this was based on findings of a three-phase study conducted by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) from 2010.

He said in the first phase of the study, carried out on 725 respondents, 89 per cent were found to be addicted to the Internet.

He said 60 per cent of the respondents showed elevated levels of anxiety and 32 per cent had major depression.

“This MCMC study is conducted in collaboration with academicians from local private universities, namely International Medical University and Heriot-Watt University Malaysia.

This MCMC study is being conducted in collaboration with academicians from local private universities. DATUK SERI JAILANI JOHARI Deputy minister, Communications and Multimedia

“We are moving on to the second phase with the development of intervention modules and programmes to address anxiety and depression among Internet users.”

He said the government had worked with the Education Ministry since 2015 to train 34 school counsellors on the implementation of intervention modules and programmes in selected schools as a measure to control the addiction.

“This included the development of intervention modules in addressing Internet gaming and pornography addictions.”

He said 24.1 million Malaysians used the Internet for various activities.

He said 80 per cent of people use the Internet to access social media, with an average usage of over four hours a day, with 76.1 per cent of them aged between 20 and 49.