AN AWARENESS talk on social media safety held yesterday for students from Years 1-3 showed that more than half of them have Facebook or Instagram accounts.
“It’s certainly a concern when children so young are using social media, because it makes them approachable to strangers including online predators and paedophiles,” said Awangku Saiful Badri bin Pengiran Zaini, a representative of Brunei Computer Emergency Response Team (BruCERT).
BruCERT was invited to the Sinaut Primary School to deliver the talk in two sessions – upper primary and lower primary.
The first session with those in Years 4-6 was delivered by Siti Nor Izuana binti Ayob with 57 pupils in attendance.
During the talk, one of the topics that caught the students’ attention was an incident involving YouTube personality Logan Paul.
The students were aware that Logan Paul had made the mistake of not thinking twice before posting a disturbing video.
The students were then taught to differentiate between what can and can’t be posted online.
They were also advised not to chat with strangers when playing online games which have chat features, such as Minecraft, Mobile Legends and Roblox.
In the second session, which was for Years 1-3, more than half of the 51 students answered ‘yes’ when asked if they have any social media accounts.
The talk for that session was presented by Pengiran Mohd Farid Zulhusni bin Pengiran Aziz, the lead trainer at IT Protective Security Services Sdn Bhd (ITPSS)/BruCERT.
“Parents are not aware that most social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat require a minimum age of 13 years for opening an account,” Awangku Saiful Badri said.
“With the rise of social media, it is important for us to educate the younger generation on the dangers of social media and how to safely use Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms,” he added.
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