MCMC’s Click Wisely campaign reaches out to the less fortunate

PENANG: For this year’s edition of its Click Wisely campaign, aimed at educating the public on responsible Internet usage, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) tried a different approach by reaching out to disadvantaged communities.

Regardless of whether they were able to grasp the importance of the message conveyed to them, the MCMC team managed to learn some valuable lessons on gratitude and compassion.

The commission’s Network Security, New Media Monitoring, Compliance and Advocacy chief officer Dr Mazlan Ismail said the sight of young orphans at some of the homes they visited tugged at their heartstrings.

“They were all so young. It made me and my teammates realise how grateful we should be to God for all that we are enjoying,” he said.

The MCMC’s special Click Wisely roadshow, held in June, took the team to seven charitable institutions in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Penang housing a total of 250 senior citizens and 129 orphans.

The Click Wisely campaign was introduced in July 2012 to protect the nation’s Internet users against cyber crime, cyber grooming and other forms of misconduct, as well as produce ethical and alert Internet users while creating a healthier and safer cyberspace.

While the previous years’ campaigns were targeted at students, youths, parents and guardians, this time around MCMC decided to add a humanitarian touch to its campaign.

“In carrying out our programmes to educate Internet users on issues such as fake news and cyber grooming, we didn’t want to overlook the problems faced by certain segments of our society,” said Mazlan, explaining why the MCMC decided to take its Click Wisely campaign to charitable institutions.

Confessing that he shed some tears after he met the inmates of some of the homes they visited, he said it was a reminder to him not to turn a blind eye to the plight of the less fortunate as all human beings were equal.

MCMC Advocacy and Outreach division senior director Eneng Faridah Iskandar said visiting the charitable homes was a new experience for the commission and that she and her team were very happy with their response to the programme.

She said besides conveying the essential messages contained in their Click Wisely campaign to the residents of the homes, the MCMC team also took the opportunity to make donations to them.

Although the children residing at orphanages do not have smartphones or other devices to connect them to cyberworld, they still need to be educated on responsible Internet usage as they have access to computers at their schools.

“They too are at risk of becoming victims of cyber grooming and bullying, so that’s one of the reasons we took our Click Wisely campaign to them and shared tips on how they can keep themselves safe (from predators and fraudsters),” said Eneng Faridah.

As the children aged below five were too young to take part in the Click Wisely programme, the MCMC team shared their tips with the administrators of the children’s homes in the hope that they would guide their wards when they grew older. While the administrators of the charitable institutions that benefited from MCMC’s Click Wisely campaign were happy to learn about Internet security and other issues, they also have other matters to be concerned about – mainly their financial affairs.

They also hoped that the MCMC’s visit to their homes would create more public awareness on their plight.

Manager of Rumah Warga Emas Darul Hanan in Penang, Siti Sarah Yahaya, 39, said although they received adequate contributions in terms of food, they did not get enough cash donations.