Ritika Pratap 
[file photo]
Joining social media platforms has become a trend among children, especially teenagers.
The Online Safety Commission, Manager Outreach Samuel Finau says that the majority of these young social media users become victims of image-based abuse or become targets of hate crimes.
He highlighted this during a symposium on child sexual abuse.
Finau says Gen Z feels that if they are not on Instagram, Thread, or on a gaming platform, they are lagging.
“So that’s why most of the reports we receive on teenagers, on children, are on image-based abuse, mostly derived from those social media trends that they need to be on social media. And having relationships.”
Finau says they have also received cases of cyber jealousy and bullying.
“There’s a lot of jealousy in sports. Most cases that we see are from athletics, sports, or friends joining other friends or joining other groups from other schools.”
Another trend noticed by the Commission includes online grooming.
“Most of the reports that we receive from online grooming are from online games. I feel like the minister said that we really do need a multi-stakeholder collaboration. And for front liners, for service providers, for policy.”
The Online Safety Commission suggests that policymakers must learn online gaming trends and slang to come up with better strategies to resolve this crisis.
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