Government will educate teens on risk of online love

The Welfare, Women and Family Development Ministry here is going interactive in a bid to educate teenagers on the risk of finding love through social media.

Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said given the rising trend of using social networks like Facebook to interact and meet people these days, it was crucial to make teenagers aware of the risks involved and that things might not be as rosy as anticipated.

She said the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) will hold a “Remaja dan Cinta Muka Buku” programme to keep their emotions in check and realise how sensitive and vulnerable they could get.

“We are targeting those aged between 18 and 20 years old. We get them to participate in an inventory of how they view romance, relationship and their style of courting.

“After filling up the inventory’s questionnaire, their points will tell them which category they fell into. They could be romantics or too controlling or not the serious type. There are a few categories they may fall in and this way, it shows them their emotional traits when it comes to love,” she told a press conference here yesterday.

Fatimah said a Facebook page would be set up on the programme and the teens could register themselves via it if they wanted to take part in this self-inventory.

She said the registration would begin from May 9 till June 9 and on June 17, the first 500 would be invited to an event to do the inventory. The venue has yet to be decided upon.

“We are targeting 2,000 teenagers with the first batch of 500 to do the inventory first. It will go in stages.”

Aside from this, she said the girl participants could also get free HPV vaccinations which prevents cervical cancer. This vaccination exercise is part of the programme.

She said LPPKN was trying this method of outreach for the first time and hopefully, it would meet its objectives which was to create awareness of social media and how to be self-aware of one’s emotions.

“There are times love can be found via social media but there is also incidence of people getting into trouble because of it. So what we want to do is let them know the risks involved and how to protect themselves.”