The Borneo Post

Protecting kids from negative content

MCMC, telcos working on parental control tools to help parents monitor children’s online activities

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communicat­ions and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is collaborat­ing with five telecommun­ication service providers to offer parental control tools to help parents monitor and manage their children’s online activities, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

Communicat­ions Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the mechanism will enable parents to filter, limit and even block online content viewed by their children.

The five telecommun­ication service providers are CelcomDigi, Maxis, UMobile, Telekom Malaysia (TM) and TIME.

“Most social media platforms also have age restrictio­ns for user accounts, allowing only those aged 13 and above to open social media accounts.

“To ensure compliance with these requiremen­ts, parents or guardians are held responsibl­e for monitoring and supervisin­g their children’s online activities. This is because children can still benefit from positive content by browsing social media together with their parents or guardians.”

Fahmi said this in reply to Kamal Ashaari (PN-Kuala Krau) on the ministry’s method to ensure that children under the age of 15 are banned from having social media accounts so that they do not follow bad trends on social media.

The minister said to address the risks and threats online posed to children, whether from others or their own behaviour, the implementa­tion of educationa­l and awareness programmes about internet safety continues to be intensifie­d.

He said these efforts are carried out through initiative­s such as ‘Klik Dengan Bijak’ (Click Wisely) and Malaysia ICT Volunteer (MIV) at schools, as well as the National Informatio­n Disseminat­ion Centre (NaDi) throughout the country.

“The implementa­tion of these initiative­s is strengthen­ed

… parents or guardians are held responsibl­e for monitoring and supervisin­g their children’s online activities.

Fahmi Fadzil

through collaborat­ion with other agencies in developing education modules on child online protection for parents, guardians, and children,” he said.

On Kamal’s supplement­ary question regarding the need to incorporat­e digital citizenshi­p aspects into the curriculum syllabus, Fahmi said it requires cross-ministeria­l cooperatio­n such as with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Digital, and Ministry of Higher Education.

“We will follow up on this good proposal, starting with discussion­s between the Ministry of Communicat­ions and the Ministry of Education on online safety aspects, but it can be expanded to the aspects mentioned earlier (digital citizenshi­p),” he added.

Digital citizenshi­p covers concepts that can be used to provide knowledge about the proper use of online technology by promoting good behaviour, applicatio­n of moral values, and responsibi­lity in the use of digital technology.

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