Address twisted sense of values among teenagers — LDP

KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Central New Generation (New-Gen) Movement Leader Eric Lau Kah Hon has urged the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to address the issue of distorted views and twisted sense of values among teenagers.

He said the mental health of adolescents, particularly those suffering from anxiety and depression has become a growing concern.

“The government ought to work closely with schools and NGOs to look into the severity of this matter,” he said when commenting on a 16-year teenager in Kuching, Sarawak who plunged to her death after she conducted an online poll on whether she should kill herself recently.

The teen had reportedly posted the headline “Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L” on Instagram and as many as 69 per cent of her followers chose ‘D’. ‘D/L’ means ‘Death/Life’.

Additionally, Lau said the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2017 showed that 18.3 per cent of teenagers between 13 and 17 years old were depressed, while 29 per cent of Malaysian citizens were suffering from depression or anxiety, marking an increase of 12 per cent compared to figures in 2011.

As such, he supported Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s plan to jump start a discussion on the mental health state of Malaysian youths.

He also suggested the government, together with schools and NGOs, organize mental health forum, courses, counselling, seminar and healthy activities for youths.

“The organizer could invite the public, especially parents, to attend seminars conducted by experts in this field to promote awareness on social media usage among teenagers and the negative repercussions if these platforms are misused or abused.”

He added that parents played an important role in children’s development.

“Parents should show more concern and spend time in understanding what their children are going through, whereas youths should try to communicate more with their parents rather than rely on social media.”

Lau said the public should be more aware of the mental health of adolescents following the suicide of the Sarawakian teenager.

“There are bound to be ups and downs in life but with proper counselling, we can prevent unfortunate incidents from happening.”