Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad spoke about Youth and Internet Pornographic

Malaysia former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, talked about Internet Guarantee...

1. When we appointed an International Advisory Panel of prominent IT personalities from around the world, we gave a guarantee that Malaysia would not censor the Internet.

2. We thought at that time that even if we wanted to, we couldn’t. The technology was not available for us to do this. And so Malaysiakini and other sites flourished.

3. Now that I have retired I feel glad that we made the decision not to censor. I have benefited much from the blogs as have very many bloggers. There may be a few who have abused this blogging privilege but by and large it has served the public well. The mainstream media in Malaysia need no censoring as they censor themselves. So the blogs can report what really happens. It can be the alternative source of news. And there is a need for this other source for the mainstream media will always be guarding their behind.

4. I had always assumed that the Western press is free. Certainly they have never been in any way constrained when writing about the third world including Malaysia.

5. Now, I know better. Robert Fisk, one of the great Western journalists has revealed that when writing about their own countries and about the West in general they adhere to official sources and use clichés which masked the truth. They too indulge in self-censoring. I recommend that everyone interested in the so-called freedom of the press should read his book – The Age of The Warrior.

6. Press freedom is supposed to be an essential part of the practice of Western Democracy. The assumption is that with press freedom truth will prevail. But the freedom is also about telling lies, about promoting evil agendas, demonizing individuals, twisting facts, hounding people to death and all other kinds of evil.

7. The Internet has now given not just journalists but given just about anyone the same capacities to tell the truth, to lie and twist facts and do all the good and evil things. There is no censoring the Internet.

8. But I am concerned about the dissemination of pornographic material. I am concerned because there can be no doubt that sex related crimes are more common today due to the easily excitable young having access to filthy pornographic material. Sexual immorality among youths is more common today than ever before.

9. Something has to be done to the Internet’s promotion of immorality. The world community should agree that the promotion of pornography via the Internet should be stopped. Failing this Malaysia should censor all pornographic material on the Internet, guarantees notwithstanding.

10. It is possible to do this now and it should be done. It will not be 100% successful but it will prevent easy access at least. Moral decay should not be allowed to be promoted. Certainly moral decay should not be speeded up via the Internet.

Source: Tun Mahathir's blog on Internet Use

Monitor Kids’ Web Surfing Habits

Deputy Education Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Wee Ka Siong, urged that Parents should monitor the web surfing habits of their children to prevent them from browsing pornographic sites.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, who said this, assured the people that students were not able to access pornographic sites in schools as the SchoolNet network and computers filtered those sites.

“So it is important that parents supervise their children as they can still access pornographic sites from home or at cybercafes,” he told reporters after launching a language campaign at SJK (C) Serdang Baru (1).

Dr Wee, who is MCA Youth chief, also advised parents to inform the school if their children were “addicted” to such websites.

Dr Wee was asked to comment on a post by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on his blog regarding pornography and moral decay among youths.

On the language campaign, he said it was a pilot project in Selangor aimed at helping pupils from vernacular schools master Bahasa Malaysia and English.

Dr Wee expressed hope that pupils would continue to improve their Bahasa Malaysia and English when the MBMMBI (Policy for Upholding the Malay Language, Strengthening the Command of English) is introduced in schools next year.

On another matter, the deputy minister said MCA had been conducting town hall meetings to get the community’s feedback on the proposal to scrap the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations.

“We will report our findings at the second roundtable discussion on UPSR and PMR next week,” he said.

Source: The Star Online

How Addictive Are You? - Internet Addictions Test

Many of us may have experienced the situation when yourself or someone does not admit own addictive behavior towards internet. It is because we do not know the standard of considering one as Internet Addict. Have you wondered how addictive you really are towards internet?

Internet Addiction Test (IAT), a reliable and valid measure of addictive use of Internet, developed by Dr. Kimberly Young. It consists of 20 items that measures mild, moderate and severe level of Internet Addiction. Let's try it out!

Answer the following questions by using this scale:-
1 = Rarely 2 = Occasionally 3 = Frequently 4 = Often 5 = Always 0 = Does not apply

1. How often do you find that you stay on-line longer than you intended?
2. How often do you neglect household chores to spend more time on-line?
3. How often do you prefer the excitement of the Internet to intimacy with your partner?
4. How often do you form new relationships with fellow on-line users?
5. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend on-line?
6. How often do your grades or school work suffers because of the amount of time you spend on-line?
7. How often do you check your email before something else that you need to do?
8. How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the Internet?
9. How often do you become defensive or secretive when anyone asks you what you do on-line?
10. How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet?
11. How often do you find yourself anticipating when you will go on-line again?
12. How often do you fear that life without the Internet would be boring, empty, and joyless?
13. How often do you snap, yell, or act annoyed if someone bothers you while you are on-line?
14. How often do you lose sleep due to late-night log-ins?
15. How often do you feel preoccupied with the Internet when off-line, or fantasize about being online?
16. How often do you find yourself saying “just a few more minutes” when on-line?
17. How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend on-line and fail?
18. How often do you try to hide how long you’ve been on-line?
19. How often do you choose to spend more time on-line over going out with others?
20. How often do you feel depressed, moody or nervous when you are off-line, which goes away once you are back online?

Total up the scores for each item. The higher your score, the greater level of addiction is.

20 – 49 points:
You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.

50 – 79 points:
You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life.

80 – 100 points:
Your Internet usage is causing significant problems in your life. You should elevate the impact of the Internet on your life and address the problems directly caused by you Internet usage.

Have you found out your addictive usage level of Internet? Do you have high level of addiction or low level of addiction? I hope that this test could help you in finding out more about yourself on your internet usage. Let's reflect your behavior on internet usage and started taking note on the habits on internet usage before it gets worse. We shall talk about the research done for this IAT and discuss more about the things we can do about it!

What does Internet Addiction mean?

We have often heard others saying different terms on excessive use of internet or computer. However, these different terms refer to different stage of seriousness.

First of all, let's ask ourselves, what the definition of overuse and addiction is. According to the dictionary, "overuse" means to use too much or too often or excessive use. Therefore, Internet Overuse means excessive use of internet services, whether for communication, fun, learning, shopping or to kill the boredom.

Addiction, on the other hand, is explained as in the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. In medical definition, addiction is persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be physically, psychologically, or socially harmful. Recently, psychologists have started the diagnosis of Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) or, more broadly, Internet overuse, problematic computer use or pathological computer use, is excessive computer use that interferes with daily life.

On the other hand, Internet Abuse means to use the internet inappropriately. This happened to many of the students who use internet facility in the lecture hall for gaming during the lecture, or the working adults who use the workplace provided internet facility for non-office related purpose. Most schools or colleges/ universities have blocked facebook and game websites, and companies have Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to control internet abuse. Therefore, we should understand the boundary of using the facility provided (beware, your boss may be watching you).

Introduction to Internet Addiction

Welcome to Internet Addiction Center. We are here to provide you the knowledge and share advices for the better understanding of the usage of internet, especially on the issue of internet addiction or computer addiction.

In the modern era, every household would have at least one or two computers. And today, internet has given us benefits. Either you are a student using internet to get information for assignments preparation, or you are a working adult using internet to make your job more efficient, or you are a guy who surfs internet to look for the new brand car model, or you are a lady who loves to do online shopping. Internet has become a big part of our lives. However, a coin has two sides and it’s the same to internet.

I have a friend who loves surfing the net. His main activity on the internet was to play online games with his friends. Often, he and his friends would set a time to go onto the internet together to compete in online games. As he was so involved in the online games, he started to change his lifestyle. Right after he came back from school, he would switch on his computer right away, without taking shower or meal. Sometimes, he would take his meal in front of the computer. He could even forget about going to toilet when he was in the middle of the games. Everyday, he started playing internet games after his school until the next morning 5am, he took a short nap and went for school. Due to his lack of sleep, he couldn’t concentrate and often fall asleep during the class. His parents were unhappy but he rebelled and had conflicts with the parents. His addiction to the internet has caused his change of lifestyle and gradually affected his studies, health, and his relationship with family members.

Recently, the issues on internet addictions are not uncommon. The society started to realize that internet can cause addictions and many of our friends or family members have already been the victim of addiction to internet. Here, we are sharing knowledge built on recent research articles on the issue of internet addiction. We hope that you can be benefited from reading our articles and to improve and prevent the problem of internet addiction.