Posted on August 11, 2013, Sunday

KUALA LUMPUR: Parents prohibiting their children from using the social media can provoke the youngsters to rebel and accuse them of not respecting their “personal rights”, according to a university psychologist.

Currently, young people were concerned about their “personal space” and would be unhappy if it was violated, noted Prof Madya Dr Mariani Mohd Nor, a psychologist with Universiti Malaya’s educational psychology and counselling department.

She said although parents were concerned with the characters their children meet on the social site, the meddling by parents could only aggravate matters.

“Parents should not take drastic action like preventing their children from surfing the Internet or checking on their mobile phone as this would cause children to feel they are not trusted.

“Children so hindered will have a tendency to rebel and find ways to surf the Internet in cyber cafes, if not permitted to do so at home,” she said.

Dr Mariani thinks parents should be open with their children and win their trust and become friends so they would not keep secrets from them.

Meanwhile, independant speaker Datuk Hassan Mahmud Al Hafiz said children should be given religious guidance to prevent them from getting involved in negative activities.

The former imam of the National Mosque said girls should be wary of individuals on social networking sites, especially the opposite sex. They should be wise in evaluating the people they meet on social media. — Bernama

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