'It's so easy to access videos with sexual content': Some parents call for social media ban
SINGAPORE - When asset manager Look Ru Shin noticed her daughter, then aged 10, glued to her phone, something felt off.
“She was trying to hide it,” Madam Look, 46, recalled.
A closer look revealed that her daughter, Claire, had received inappropriate messages from a stranger on Minecraft. “I immediately deleted her account and the app,” she said.
The incident heightened Madam Look’s concerns about harms online that she had seen, such as toxic trends, warped beauty standards and sexualised content, and their detrimental impact on children.
Many parents stand with her in wishing to see more handholding when it comes to online usage for children, but are torn on what the most effective measures should be.
Regulators globally are at a crossroads with online platforms and harmful content that plagues social media, games and other apps.
Many nations, including Britain, European countries, Indonesia and Singapore are mulling over age restrictions – with some even considering outright bans on social media for teenagers.