The IT Clash: Parents vs Children

A Sunday Star article on October 16 entitled “Parents losing IT battle” written by Yvonne Lim really caught my attention. Are the parents really losing the battle? How can we, as the parents have the upper hand over our children? 

Now that they are young adults and have their own mobile devices, I hope that they are sensible enough to think for themselves as sometimes mature adults too get entangled in nasty cyber scams.

As a parent, I find it tough to keep up with my more IT-savvy children, let alone monitor their activities in the cyber world.

Nowadays, many children are smarter than their parents in accessing websites blocked for their own protection. Even if the parents are aware, what can they do? Blocking websites or their access at home does not work anymore as they will come up with new tactics and learn new ways to evade their parents' control over their Internet usage.

The article also mentioned that Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil announced the drafting of a strategic master plan to provide online protection to 11.2 million youths below 18 years of age. Will having a strategic masterplan work if actual enforcement is not in place?

Let’s face it, today’s children are smarter than their parents but parents must also keep up and be equally as smart!