Child sexual crimes: Parents need to be smart about the use of gadgets
KUALA LUMPUR: Online sexual exploitation of children in Malaysia is becoming more worrying when a total of 106,764 registered Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in the country were detected sharing pornographic content involving the group from 2017 to last August.
Despite various government approaches, especially through the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) in preventing online sexual crimes against children, what is more important is the role of parents and families at home.
Child psychologist, SEGi University, Prof Datin Mariani Md Noor said, parents need to be smarter in dealing with issues involving the use of gadgets since it is a necessity nowadays.
“What is worrying is that instead of searching for words related to education, they get stuck using other keywords that lead to negative things.
“Gadgets are a necessity but at the same time parents need to realize that excessive and uncontrollable use can lead to things that will have a negative impact on the children themselves in the future.
“We have to realize that sometimes children can not only get information from their teachers, friends and parents but also many websites that can be easily browsed through smartphones,” he said when appearing in the AWANI Bulletin, on Wednesday .
He explained that the authorities and platform providers or telcos can carry out enforcement but education at the initial stage should not be taken lightly.
“Children need to understand about sexual crimes and sexual education should not be considered taboo. They should be exposed to sexual education.
“Because of that in our education system, there is indeed sexual education, the next level is that education should be done as best as possible, no one should be ashamed to talk about the truth,” he added.
source – Madiha Abdullah