Internet addiction can dominate lives of children — Rosmah

KUALA LUMPUR: Internet addiction among children can not only dominate their lives but also damage their social skills, affect their thinking, learning and cause emotional disturbance, said the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

She said the situation could also affect family relationship apart from stymie their involvement in sporting and recreation activities.

“An emptiness in family ties results in reduced instilling of noble values and role modelling which are crucial in nurturing children into becoming responsible adults who love peace.

“This is an inter-generational problem which will repeat and later can lead to the risk of children becoming victims or predators of cyber crimes,” she said when opening the #CyberSAFE Seminar: Keeping Women and Children Safe in the Cyberworld at a leading hotel here yesterday.

Also present were Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said and Deputy Education Minister Datuk P Kamalanathan.

Rosmah, who is also the patron of the Permata early childhood education programme, also drew the attention of the seminar participants to the fact that almost 45 percent of children between the ages of seven to nine were internetsavvy as were 92.5 percent of those between the ages of 13 and 17.

“Parents must play a key role in monitoring what is being viewed, listened to and read by children on the internet,” she said.

Rosmah said she did not have a personal social media account and urged the public not to believe or spread information from false accounts.

“Clearly, there is mischievous intent to create a conflict between certain parties and I am also a victim of fake news,” she said.

She urged the responsible parties such as the National Cyber Security Agency and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to review the laws to ensure that they, the policies, regulations and enforcement aspects were relevant to the times.

The one-day seminar organised by the National Council of Women’s Organisations (NCWO) and CyberSecurity Malaysia was attended by about 1,200 participants from private agencies, youth groups, children and participants of Permata.

Eleven speakers from various agencies including the Commercial and Cyber Crimes Unit in the AttorneyGeneral’s Chambers, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission as well as the Royal Malaysia Police presented talks.

Also present were two wellknown personalities, Harith Iskandar and Lisa Surihani who were moderators of the talks.

Topics discussed included maintaining cyber security, combating and tackling cyber threats.

Earlier, chairman of the seminar Tan Sri Emeritus Professor Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, who is also NCWO president, said she was proud of the country’s efforts in fighting sexual crimes against children which had been acknowledged internationally.

She said on Oct 2, Rosmah had been invited by the World Childhood Foundation under the patronage of the Queen of Sweden, Queen Silvia Renate Sommerlath to present Malaysia’s efforts in combating the crime at a high level meeting of the United Nations in New York.

“The presentation was done through video recording is an honour and Malaysia has been invited to be part of the Global Partnership Initiative to fight violence against children,” she said. - Bernama