Social media users in the country should enhance their self-regulation to be more responsible in accessing multimedia contents.

Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) head of industry surveillance and enforcement, Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin, said self-regulation was crucial to address abuse of the social media in the country.

He said consumers should be taught to not use the social media to stir racial sentiment, spread lies, poison the people’s mind to an extent of damaging  public order.

“Although there is no content control or legal screening in the social media, social media users, like Facebook and Twitter, should have self-regulation on contents and information which they shared, as well as to not send negative content.

“Now, people are exposed to a wider multimedia content, hence, the need for them to play their role and to exercise self-regulation in ensuring our society, especially the young generation, are free from negative and dangerous contents,” he told Bernama .

Parents, he said, should also play their role by training their children to exercise self-regulation when accessing the Internet.

“Self-regulation should begin at home so that parents can monitor their children’s activities when accessing the Internet and to guide the children to use the facility for good,” he added.

Zulkarnain said the social media users should also learn the skills to report directly to the administrators to protect themselves and other users from becoming victims of cyber crime.

The government, he said, had launched the ‘Klik dengan Bijak’ campaign to educate and instill awareness among the public on ethical use of the Internet.

He said consumers had to exercise caution, including verifying its truth,  before sharing or spreading information received on the Internet.

“Based on a study, 35 percent of respondents believed the content posted on Facebook is true.

“This is worrying because many people still cannot differentiate between what is true and false,” he added.

- Bernama