Children And Teenagers Exposed To Negative Cyber Culture
Bernama (12 Oct 2011)

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 (Bernama)-Children and teenagers from 8-18 years-old are exposed to threats or negative cyber culture including bullying, identity fraud and pornography.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil said parents should pay more attention to their children by monitoring websites accessible to them.

Norton Family Online Report 2010 said that on average, they surf the internet 19 hours weekly and only four of 10 parents monitor the websites visited.

"Although parents are responsible for monitoring their children, they can't be blamed entirely as the children may be motivated by other factors such as influence of friends," she told reporters after opening a seminar on Online Child Protection here today.

Also present were Women, Family and Community Development Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Regulatory and Monitoring chief officer Datuk Jailani Johari and CyberSecurity Malaysia chief executive officer Prof Datuk Husin Jazri.

Shahrizat said a study by MCMC found that internet penetration in 2010 was at 60 percent of 28.6mil population and expected to increase to 70 percent by 2015.

"This shows that Malaysians are IT savvy, comparable and consistent with international trends. As such, the probability of IT users including children being exposed to threats is higher."

The seminar is organised by Women, Family and Community Development Ministry in collaboration with Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Education, MCMC, Royal Malaysian Police, CyberSecurity Malaysia and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

It is follow-up to Malaysia's decision to join the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that cover the sale of children, prostitution and pornography in Sept.

Meanwhile, Husin said CyberSecurity Malaysia detected 11,930 cyber security incidents from Jan-Sept this year, with 4,175 involving fraud. It was a 130 percent increased from 2010.

He said spam posted 3,452 cases, hacking (2,345), malicious code (867), attempt to hack (525), cyber harassment (354) and content-related offences (48).

"The increased incidents of cyber security is associated with an increase in internet usage by some 17mil internet users.

"This number will continue to increase supported by rapid development of internet broadband infrastructure," he added.