City youth leaders push responsible internet use

CEBU, Philippines – Seeing technology as a threat to the youth, some youth leaders in Mandaue City have asked the City Council to pass a law that they said could protect them.

Fr. Fidel Orendain, SDB, in an interview with the media, said addiction is not only limited to alcohol and drugs, but may also include the use of the Internet.

Orendain, who leads the Cyber Teens Responsible Leaders (CTRL), said parents are buying their children gadgets which later become their playmates, day and night, resulting to addiction.

He said when the child becomes addicted to technology, the latter’s performance in school suffers, and even his grasps to the real world, he said.

While there are already hospitals in some countries like China for people who’ve become addicted to technology, there is none yet in the Philippines, he added.

However, Orendain said the concern has not yet reached an “alarming” stage, which is why they are pushing for the local governments of Cebu City, Mandaue, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu to put up measures ensuring that this possibility will not happen.

“It takes away self-esteem. This is why we ask LGUs to step up…to warn parents not to introduce technologies to kids, because it becomes addicting,” the priest said.

“We are given a glimpse of the beauty and danger of the new technologies that allow us to receive, share and produce massive information at amazing speed and quantity. These instruments, which are now so accessible to us, provide a range of benefits, but they also open us up to tremendous risks, particularly when left to ourselves, we experiment on new forms of social engagement,” read the manifesto read by the CTRL leaders before the Mandaue City Council during its session last week.

The young leaders said the words and photos being exchanged in the social media or mobile phones have “hurt” the feelings of others, “deeply causing people to feel alienated...angry and in some cases commit suicide.”

Orendain said that in Cebu ,there has been at least one suicide case linked to the use of technology. About 40 to 47 percent of Internet abuse is tagged to ages 30 year old and below. He said one of the top concerns is cyberbullying.

The group asked that the LGU intervenes in the three areas to promote a “cyber safe environment” for the child.

It said the educational institutions should include a cyber literacy curriculum and punish cyberbullies.

Business establishments, it added, should likewise impose strict rules against accessing of mature content websites by minors.

Finally, the group maintained that Internet shops should prohibit students and minors from overstaying, and families should sponsor seminars on the effects of technology use.

Orendain said most parents do not know that the technology they are giving to their children will result to harm, as they themselves do not know how to use it.

Councilor Neneta Layese has promised the group of Orendain that she will draft an ordinance embodying all these three aspects. (FREEMAN)