KUALA LUMPUR: Online safety aspects, especially for children under the age of 13, need to be emphasised by parents, says Fahmi Fadzil.
The Communications Minister said parents should always monitor their children's social media accounts because at such a young age, they could be easily influenced by inappropriate cultures.
"If there are children under 13 years old, prohibit them from having social media accounts because we see that at that age they are quite easily influenced by certain trends and in terms of mental development, there is still much they need to go through," he said.
He told reporters this after launching the Back to School programme with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and Shopee at the Sri Pantai People's Housing Project (PPR) here involving 200 recipients on Saturday (March 9).
Also present were MCMC Transformation and State Coordination Division chief Bukhari Yahya and Federal Territory director Hanita Izam Abdul Rahman.
Fahmi also said his ministry would meet with the Education Ministry soon to discuss the matter besides examining several issues that could be collaborated on.
He said the Communications Ministry would also propose an awareness campaign to be held in schools, which would be attended by social media platform operators.
"Generally, I see that social media platforms are ready to do CSR (corporate social responsibility) together with the ministry to increase awareness among students so that they understand and do not engage in social media at a young age," he said.
"God willing, we will discuss what quick wins we can achieve and what is long-lasting that can be done," he said.
Fahmi also said he met representatives from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Parliament last week and has several plans to ensure the success of awareness campaigns among teachers, parents and students regarding online safety aspects. - Bernama
