OCT 26 — A 15-year-old girl meeting with a friend she made through a social networking website to work on cosplay costumes was killed as she fought back when the man tried to rape her. The girl’s misfortune is a deep grief for her family, as well as an alarm for parents with teenage children.
Two common social problems mark this misfortune. First, the 23-year-old suspect and the girl, Ng Yuk Tim, are both from single-parent families. Secondly, they made friends through a social networking website.
Although Ng’s parents have divorced, she was still loved by her mother, grandfather and other relatives. She was innocent and lacked the sense to guard herself against others. She enjoyed excessive freedom even though she was still under age, leaving room for the suspect to commit the crime and resulting in the tragedy.
The suspect’s mother had deserted the family when he was young and his father died about a year ago. He claimed to have been abused by his father.
The incident highlights the influence of family harmony and influence of parents on children.
In today’s Internet era, computer technology dominate many people’s lives. Many teenagers are addicted to the online world indulge in playing online games and making friends in the virtual world. More dangerously, they meet with friends they make online without knowing their backgrounds.
We often hear of cases in which teenage girls are raped or abducted meeting friends they made online. The police have received a number of similar reports involving victims aged 13 to 18 years old.
The loss of Ng should be a warning to parents, reminding them to pay more attention to their children, particularly in their use of the Internet. Parents should also oversee their children’s habits of making friends online and chatting with strangers on social networking websites.
Social networking websites provide a convenient platform to make friends, allowing Internet users to chat, no matter whether they know each other or not, particularly when they share common interests. Actually, the virtual world is full of hidden lies and pitfalls. Although there are examples showing men and women meeting online eventually end up as life partners, society is complicated and people’s minds change. Teenagers meeting friends they made online face extremely high risk. Parents must pay close attention to children’s behaviour. Even adults can easily fall into traps as long as they are a bit greedy and do not have enough common sense.
Contrary to traditional family structures, women nowadays are also breadwinners and double-income families have become increasingly common. Although it helps to raise income, parents who are busy working might be lax in disciplining and supervising their children, while neglecting their needs, causing them to spend most of the time sitting in front of computers and expressing their loneliness and study pressure through chatting with other netizens.
If parents do not understand what their children are thinking and doing, how are they going to enter their children’s world to educate and guide them?
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
