Kjoel said the findings indicate users in Malaysia are taking positive steps towards increasing awareness for online safety. — Image by Freepik
KUALA LUMPUR: Two in five Malaysian youths say their mental health has been impacted by experiences with fake news, online harassment and identity theft in the past couple of years.
The findings were revealed in the second Telenor Asia's Digital Lives Decoded study which surveyed over 8,000 mobile users in the region.
For Malaysia, 1,013 users aged between 18 to 29 years old were involved in the study conducted in August.
On average 89% of Malaysians spend at least half the day using their mobile device, higher than the regional average of 73%. As they spend more time online, the study showed that users also develop more concerns for online safety.
It revealed that 63% of users said they are "very concerned" about the level of privacy and security on mobile devices with data theft (67%), identity theft (65%) and fake news (57%) cited as the top three concerns.
CelcomDigi head of privacy Kulani Kulasingam said young people have admitted feeling vulnerable to scams due to how the fraudsters’ tactics have evolved.
“I’ve spoken to a group of students during one of our prior engagement events. They are surprised at how some of the more sophisticated scams and threats could actually happen to them,” she said during a briefing in Kuala Lumpur today (Nov 17)
The level of concerns for elderly family members' online safety is also most apparent in Malaysia with 90% compared to the regional average at 77%.
Telenor Asia head of investment management Haakon Bruaset Kjoel said the findings indicate users in Malaysia are taking positive steps towards increasing awareness for online safety.
“That means people understand that there are risks out there and they need to take steps to protect themselves. I would have been very worried if the results (numbers) were low here,” Kjoel said.
He said generally, users in Asia have also started developing more awareness for data privacy and protection during the pandemic when they started spending more time online.
“The interesting thing about the study is that they understand a lot more about the data they give away compared to how it was in the past,” Kjoel added.
Kulani said the study also emphasised the need for organisations to step up by implementing guardrails to meet with customers’ expectations on online safety.
“Lawmakers also need to keep up. Even more so in telecommunications with the advancement of technology such as 5G and AI,” she added.
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