MCMC: Time to teach pupils digital literacy

MCMC Chief Regulatory Officer Mr Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin.

PETALING JAYA: Digital literacy should be included in the school curriculum to better counter online scams, says the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Its chief regulatory officer Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin said digital literacy lessons should be taught in primary school as many children are given mobile phones at a young age.

“We teach children not to talk to strangers but nothing is associated with social media and digital platforms, the risks and how to mitigate them,” he said.

“We should start from primary school because children at the age of five have mobile phones and they can navigate their way to sites that you may not know of.”

He said MCMC is focusing on consumer advocacy programmes and awareness campaigns on cybercrime through the Click Wisely (KDB) and Malaysia ICT Volunteer (MIV) initiatives.

He said MCMC and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do not conduct mass monitoring or surveillance of social media or emails in line with the government’s policy to uphold the people’s right to freedom of speech and privacy.

“If we receive complaints from law enforcement agencies or the public, we will assist in reporting to the platform providers.

“The platform providers will assess whether the activity or posting breached their community terms of services and decide if it needs to be taken down,” he said in an interview with Bahasa Malaysia news portal Majoriti.

Zulkarnain said MCMC had acted against websites, portals and applications found to have breached the law.

“In terms of enforcement on activities such as money lending, mule accounts and others, it is not within MCMC’s jurisdiction but despite that, we can under Section 263 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 take down websites, portals or applications that are reported to us for breaching Malaysian laws.

“This is the kind of support that we give to the law enforcement agencies; we provide technical assistance to take down sites or apps and forensic expertise if it involves raided premises,” he said.

To date, MCMC has blocked access to five websites that violate the Moneylenders Act 1951 following an official request from the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

Zulkarnain, however, believed that banning or restricting these sites would not be a bulletproof solution.

He said even though there are certain laws that could be used against online offenders, the authorities normally have difficulty identifying and locating perpetrators who use fake registrations and mask their IPs.

“People talk about data leaks but don’t realise that they are the ones who give out their personal data freely by allowing access to certain apps that they download.

“So that is why the best defence is to acknowledge, understand and learn how to mitigate the risks, and it is important to have new skill sets and digital knowledge,” he said.