Parental Control Tools Help Parents Monitor Children's Online Activities - Fahmi

KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is collaborating with five telecommunication service providers to offer Parental Control Tools to help parents monitor and manage their children’s online activities, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said that Parental Control Tools enable parents to filter, limit and even block online content viewed by their children.

The five telecommunication service providers are CelcomDigi, Maxis, UMobile, Telekom Malaysia (TM) and TIME.

“Most social media platforms also have age restrictions for user accounts, allowing only those aged 13 and above to open social media accounts.

“To ensure compliance with these requirements, parents or guardians are held responsible for monitoring and supervising their children's online activities. This is because children can still benefit from positive content by browsing social media together with their parents or guardians.” 

Fahmi said this in reply to Kamal Ashaari (PN-Kuala Krau) on the ministry’s method to ensure that children under the age of 15 are banned from having social media accounts so that they do not follow bad trends on social media.

The minister said that to address the risks and threats online posed to children, whether from others or their own behaviour, the implementation of educational and awareness programmes about internet safety continues to be intensified.

He said these efforts are carried out through initiatives such as Klik Dengan Bijak (Click Wisely) and Malaysia ICT Volunteer (MIV) at schools, as well as the National Information Dissemination Centre (NaDi) throughout the country.

“The implementation of these initiatives is strengthened through collaboration with other agencies in developing education modules on child online protection for parents, guardians, and children,” he said.

On Kamal’s supplementary question regarding the need to incorporate digital citizenship aspects into the curriculum syllabus, Fahmi said it requires cross-ministerial cooperation such as with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Digital, and Ministry of Higher Education.

“We will follow up on this good proposal, starting with discussions between the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Education on online safety aspects, but it can be expanded to the aspects mentioned earlier (digital citizenship),” he added.

Digital citizenship encompasses concepts that can be used to provide knowledge about the proper use of online technology by promoting good behaviour, the application of moral values, and responsibility in the use of digital technology.

-- BERNAMA