Abstract:

Usage of technology and media have positive and negative impact towards the development of children. Specifically in Internet usage, it has now become a greater challenge for parents to monitor and ensure a healthy digital environment for their children. Cyber parenting knowledge and skills becomes crucial for every parent. Previous studies reported that involvement of parents in their children’s online activities help to lessen problems related to Internet usage. Based on the National Baseline Study in 2016 conducted in Malaysia, parental control was considerably low since only about 20% of parents have installed parental control applications to filter unsuitable content and only 57% of the parents surveyed stated that they are 'connected' to their children on their social media accounts. In Malaysia, there are very minimal parenting education programs which focused on cyber parenting or aspects of parenting in a digital environment. Therefore, CyberSecurity Malaysia initiated the effort to develop modules for parents that encompass essential components related to various challenges of Internet usage among children. In this program, parents with preschool children, primary school children and teenagers are the three main target groups for the modules. The modules are presented in the form of training manuals, which are used as a guide to conduct the cyber parenting workshop. The content development of the modules is based on literatures review, benchmarking of similar programs abroad and responses from the training needs assessment. It is customized to suit the needs of the target groups mentioned, within the local context.

Keywords:

Cyber Parenting, Security Awareness, Cyber Security, Training Manual.