TWO in five children have had bad experiences while using the internet which they would not want to share or talk about, said a Unicef report based on a study conducted in four Asean countries, including Malaysia.

“Both girls and boys have faced situations where they were sent explicit pictures and were asked to send explicit pictures,” the report said.

Both girls and boys reported encountering some form of adverse experiences online with the majority of focus group participants, regardless of gender, reporting they had experienced something upsetting online.

Across the study countries, teens reported being contacted online by strangers. Most had accepted  friend requests, consistently accepting requests and messages from strangers that presented
themselves as female. 

More than half of the participants had met someone in real life whom they first got to know online.

In most cases, they did not report experiencing harm, only disappointment because the person did not look like they did in their photos.

The study was conducted in Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand, focusing on the views and experiences of 301 girls and boys, aged 11 to 18. Malaysia had 127 participants.

The report found the Covid-19 pandemic has drastically increased internet usage among children, who report going online for education and communication.

Many teenagers were found to own multiple social media accounts.

Monica Bulger, one of the researchers for the Unicef report, said these teenagers had multiple social media accounts to manage different types of relationships and to present a different picture of their lives to their parents, romantic partners, friends, and strangers.

“In all countries, teens have multiple Instagram and Facebook accounts to keep private, indicate trust in relationships, create fan or public accounts,” the report said.

“Teens often have multiple accounts to engage in multiple interests.”

The report showed that while most teenagers owned a phone, some shared phones with their parents and siblings.

“Phones come from a variety of sources such as knock-offs, refurbished and second-hand,” the report said.

Some of the participants expressed concern over the cost of data plans and the amount of data used by apps.

Among the most used social apps by children and teenagers were Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, PubG, Mobile Legends and YouTube.

The focus group engagements were with children who were undocumented, refugees, with disabilities, and from marginalised communities. They were organised with the help of Childline Foundation and youth organisation, Vanguards4Change.

“Social media provides a unique offering for every child. For children with disabilities, their devices offer a means to meet others, form friendships and relationships, as well as skills sharing beyond labels of conditions,” the report said.

For refugee children, social media offers the opportunity to stay in contact with families and friends in the diaspora and at home, in addition to staying abreast of news.

However, the report found that children in Southeast Asia adopted the same online safety strategy as other children around the world which included keeping accounts and profiles private and blocking unsolicited messages and images from strangers.

The study recommended improved support for digital parenting by taking into account the different levels of digital literacy and access to technology among guardians.

Another recommendation is to foster online and offline resilience in children.

The study found that children equipped with skills in areas such as communication, conflict resolution, and self-efficacy are more likely to make appropriate choices when using social media, be better equipped to manage conflict, and take better measures to keep themselves safe.

Greater emphasis must also be placed on evidence-based approaches within schools, and in homes, that equip children with these skills, said the report.

According to a previous Unicef study in 2017, one in three internet users was a child and more than 175,000 children went online for the first time every day.

Locally, a survey by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in 2018 found that nine in 10 children aged five to 17 were internet users.

“In the new normal, our lives, and more so the lives of children, have gone more digital,” said Dr Rashed Mustafa Sarwar, Unicef representative for Malaysia.

He said the children were the most affected, and “we must listen to them.” – September 19, 2020.