Activist moots digital literacy lessons after child watches ‘porn’ on phone

 

A cyber consumer activist says educating children on internet use is a better long-term solution than zooming in on one particular online platform.

PETALING JAYA: An activist has called on the education ministry to formulate a digital literacy syllabus to educate schoolchildren on the dos and don’ts of consuming online content, following a teacher’s complaint that a Standard One student had purportedly watched pornography on YouTube by keying in a certain word.

Cyber consumer activist Siraj Jalil said a major issue was how children were able to freely use the internet through mobile phones to access entertainment content, but had no knowledge of what was right or wrong.

“They only rely on their parents to monitor them, but even the parents lack control or awareness of what their children are doing online.

“So children must be educated from an early stage on using the internet. This can be done by creating a digital literacy syllabus or just including such lessons in any existing syllabus,” Siraj told FMT.

He said this was a better long-term solution than zooming in on one particular online platform such as YouTube, as children might be exposed to pornographic content across social media platforms.

In a social media posting, the teacher claimed he had discovered that a pupil could access pornography easily after the child performed an “obscene gesture” in class.

He then handed his smartphone to the pupil and asked the pupil to show what he had watched on YouTube. The teacher said he was surprised as the majority of the pupils in the class could not read or even spell.

In response, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said he and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission would meet with Google officials next week to discuss the matter. YouTube is owned by Google.

Some internet users however said that the blame lay with the parents, criticising Fahmi for meeting with Google instead of talking to the child’s mother and father.

Cybersafety advocate Aaron Mokhtar said it was unlikely that the child had viewed hardcore pornography on YouTube but “soft porn”.

This typically refers to less explicit or graphic pornographic content, involving suggestive or erotic scenes which stop short of explicit sexual acts.

“There are cases where soft porn content sometimes slips through because some people are smart and know how to outmanoeuvre the algorithm,” he said.

Nonetheless, he defended Fahmi’s actions, saying there was no problem with the minister meeting Google if he wanted to know how its algorithm works.

“Google is strict about what goes on YouTube. I’m sure Google would appreciate any feedback as it is important to make sure the advertisers’ brandings are not marred by or linked to pornographic content.”

Aaron added that the best solution was for parents to actively keep a close eye on their children’s activity on the internet. - FMT