Cyber Wellness

1. Introduction

This is the digital era where children grow up with technology. Youngsters nowadays are called “digital natives”, who are conversant with computers and anything online. Many of them spend copious hours on the Internet engaging not only in learning, but social activities and entertainment as well. With technological innovations, the world is changing constantly, and the set of challenges parents faced 20 years ago and now are almost disparate. There is disparity in the way we live and work, moreover, the lifestyle of our digital natives. Prensky (2001), who wrote the well-known article “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”, reasoned that technology had changed how children learn and process information, differently than adults and adult “digital immigrants” must catch up.

 

Many parents struggle in communicating with their child’s online pursuits, or regulating their behavior on social media. Cyber bullying, addiction, and scams, are just some of the prevailing and prevalence issues that comes with harnessing digital technologies by youngsters for a multitude of tasks from research to online tutorials. These issues can have serious consequences that may include committing offences punishable by law, depression, health and mental health issues. Parents are overwhelmed and need guidance (Uhls, 2015).

 

2. Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose an instructional package in cyber wellness for parents and guardians who have to cope with the growing demands of monitoring and guiding their children in the ever-evolving digital landscape. 

 

3. Performance Gap

 

3.1 Local issues in cyber safety

Back in 2012, an alarming survey by Microsoft indicated that Singapore had the 2nd highest rate in the world for cyber bullying (Han, 2013). A recent study by TOUCH Cyber Wellness, highlighted that 1 in 3 secondary students, and 1 in 5 primary school students in Singapore have been bullied online before, while 1 in 4 secondary students have bullied others online before (Tai, 2014). In a survey by TOUCH Cyber Wellness in 2014, 1 in 2 teenagers in Singapore had seen or read inappropriate online materials and the youngest age they were exposed to these materials was 7 years old (Tai, 2014). McAfee did a study in Singapore in 2014, found that 3 in 5 teens think that their parents cannot keep up with technology, and 3 out of 4 teens has the know-how of hiding their online activities from parents (Intel Security, 2014). Another year, McAfee’s 2015 survey found that 49% of Singapore youths use fake social media profiles,16% have met a stranger they first met online, and 61% hide their online activities from parents. It was also disclosed by AIA from their recent survey that 67% of parents know that their children do not get enough exercise because of excessive screen time (Seow, 2016). Therefore, we could infer that there are serious concerns in the cyber issues of youths in Singapore for parents and educators to address.

 

A 2013 study indicated that many Singapore parents of preschoolers did not teach their children proper cyber wellness, as they do not really understand the negative issues (Teng, 2013). A 2014 study about screen time, found out that 8 out of 10 parents in Singapore were unaware of professional guidelines in supervision of screen time (NUS, 2014). The Media Development Authority commented that parents are not really aware of available Internet parental controls (Media Development Authority of Singapore, 2015).

 

3.2 Teach parents how to teach their children in cyber wellness

The Singapore Government has long been advocating parental support in educating youngsters in cyber wellness. According to the Minister for Education that time, Mr Heng Swee Keat, schools have been helping parents to teach their children about cyber safety and it is crucial that the partnership in this area continues (Ministry of Education, 2014). Minister Sim Ann, recommended more participation of parents in their children’s education in cyber wellness to achieve effective guidance (Info-communications Media Development Authority, 2016). The Inter-Ministry Cyber Wellness Steering Committee (ICSC), indicated that there is a need to support parents in guiding their children online (Ministry of Communications & Information, Singapore, 2012). They have been calling for proposals for programmes targeted to parents for them to be able to address cyber concerns and teach cyber wellness to their children since 2009 (Channel NewsAsia, 2015; Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2017).

 

3.3 Current cyber wellness programs in Singapore

There are not many cyber wellness programs launched by the Government specifically targeted to parents. Some of the main projects supported by ICSC for parents include:

• CRuSH Explorer – Touch Cyber Wellness conducts workshops, mass talks, and performances for pre-school children and parents;  

• Cyber Wellness Public Education – Outreach program initiated by Media Development Authority (MDA) providing education through cyber wellness stories, workshops, seminars and talks for students and parents; and

• iZ Hero Adventure Exhibition – The exhibition utilized game-based narrative learning to teach youths cyber wellness issues, and provided parents with relevant information (MICA, 2013).

 

Some of the Government’s other main cyber wellness programs for parents include:

• Go Safe Online – Using online literature, seminars, talks, workshops and roadshows to engage public and private sectors on Cyber Wellness and Security issues (Go Safe Online, 2017);

• Once Upon a Cyberspace – A 3D animated series screened on MediaCorp’s okto TV channel to educate children and parents on cyber wellness topics (Infocomm Media Development Authority, 2009);

• C-Quest – A mobile game application launched by Ministry of Education targeted to help parents and children learn cyber wellness skills (Tan, 2014);

• Websites that provide information on cyber wellness like the Ministry of Education’s ICT Connection (https://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/), and Media Literacy Council (http://www.medialiteracycouncil.sg/); and

• Internal, small scale workshops, seminars, and talks organized by schools and institutes.

 

These are other cyber wellness programs by non-government organizations that target parents:

• notAnoobie – Launched by Touch Cyber Wellness and SingTel , the mobile application aims to engage parents with articles and tips on latest cyber issues (Today Online, 2014);

• Parent Workshops on Cyber Wellness – Organised by SingTel to help parents with parenting in the digital age (SingTel, 2017); and

• Parent Support Group provided by MeToYou – Advice parents on treatment options for cyber addicted kids (MeToYou, 2017).

 

For parents in Singapore, the choices are limited in cyber wellness training. Most programs are primarily designed to teach children while providing additional information for parents like the iZ Hero Adventure Exhibition, C-Quest mobile application and Once Upon a Cyberspace. Other programs like the workshops and talks may not be convenient for all parents as many might not be free to attend. Online resources like the MOE ICT Connection website, Media Literacy Council’s website, Go Safe Online website, or notAnoobie mobile application provide articles for reading but might not be comprehensive and in-depth enough, and often, parents reading online articles have to combine what they read in different locations together to get a full picture.

 

There are however ample reading materials online and in books from other countries that are useful. The disadvantages of these sources from other countries are that usually parents reading them would need to apply them into Singapore’s context, which is not totally the same as countries like the United States or European countries where some cyber issues are much more prevalent than Singapore for example. Parents need to adjust what they learned from these sources to suit their needs. Also, reading from multiple sources would allow parents to get a thorough understanding to be truly savvy in cyber wellness, but that would require parents to have the patience to read through the copious resources and synthesize their learning. More could be done to address these learning gaps.

 

3.4 Parents’ perspectives

Many Singapore parents actually think that providing cyber wellness education for parents is necessary in order to guide their child properly (Kiasu Parents, 2009; School Bag, 2012). Gathered by schools through their meet-the-parents sessions or other discussion sessions, there are growing concerns by parents in cyber wellness (School Bag, 2012). A parental volunteer even opinioned that cyber wellness training should be made mandatory for all parents (School Bag, 2016). However, there are also parents who are not interested in seminars and talks on cyber wellness. From a Straits Times article in 2012, many reasons were stated from parents and it included: non relevant information in these talks; it is common sense; they have their own methods to teach their children; trust their children; do not find the need as their children have no issue currently; have no time; are IT-literate themselves and they can find information themselves online; or does not understand cyber dangers enough. In the same article, it was stated that MOE and schools will still focus and needs to work with parents in cyber safety and one principal was even looking into making a workshop compulsory for parents to attend.

 

3.5 Summary of performance problem

With Singapore Government’s call for more parents to teach cyber wellness to their children, many parents finding the need to attend courses in cyber wellness, and the worrying results provided by studies and researches done for our youths pertaining to cyber safety, there is a need to address these concerns. Parents should take a serious approach in their cyber wellness education of their children (Ma, 2010; Lee, 2016; Ng & Leong, 2009; Lwin, 2014).

 

4. Training Solution

There is a need to provide cyber wellness training to parents, for them to be better equipped in guiding their children. In a clinical report by O’Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson, and Council on Communications and Media (United States) (2011), it was highlighted that pediatricians should advise parents to educate themselves of internet safety knowledge for their children. Parents need to regularly learn the latest cyber strategies to protect their children (Robinson, 2012). Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that parents need training on cyber safety and current cyber habits of youngsters (Beale & Hall, 2007).

 

There is currently no existing program that renders a training package on cyber wellness topics that is comprehensive and in-depth for parents in Singapore. The solution for the performance problems stated in the last section would be a one-stop cyber wellness e-learning course for parents in the local context. This is going to be the first e-learning package that caters to parents and the government’s needs to train parents in better guiding their children on cyber issues.

 

In a local study by Shin (2015), parents in Singapore acknowledged that it is crucial to educate themselves and to also keep abreast of cyber safety knowledge. However, these parents stated in this study that they did not try to learn more about the knowledge actively, few of them attended talks, seminars or workshops, and not many of them were aware of the government or school organized training for them and their children. These were mainly because many of them felt confident that they can manage their children’s online activities well and the issue of availability of time for stay-home and working parents, apart from other reasons. These findings were almost similar to the news article by The Straits Times quoted earlier in the performance gap section, which reported that parents were not keen on attending talks due to various reasons. To solve these issues of parents, Dr Shin recommended organizations like the government and schools to create online communication platforms to foster education in cyber wellness and sharing of views for parents. According to Lwin (2014), it is crucial to educate parents as early as possible to use effective strategies for children when they are at various ages, and one solution to this could be online cyber wellness sessions. Schools could offer effective cyber safety training for parents, and reach more audience using e-learning (Lorenz, Kikkas, & Laanpere, 2012).

 

There are profuse works of literature on e-learning and its advantages. According to Broadbent (2002), the benefits for learners are that e-learning: enables learners to learn anywhere, anytime; can accommodate different kinds of learners through using different learning approaches; can have interactions that promote recall of prior knowledge as well as enhance understanding; and reduces travel time and costs. Smith (2012) stated that with e-learning, learners can view the materials more than once, and learners can fasten their learning for topics they are already conversant while investing more time on topics that are complex or new. Since many parents like to read information themselves online rather than attending school organized workshop or talks, it would enable busy parents to find time out of their busy schedules to educate themselves and keep abreast of cyber wellness knowledge and skills through the e-learning package. The content of the e-learning package will also be enriching covering many aspects that talks and workshops may not have the time to delve deeper into. Coupled with lively animations, videos and music, the multimedia experience that e-learning could provide for learners would be enticing and engaging (Clark & Richard, 2011).

 

Despite many advantages, e-learning still has its pitfalls like lacking of interpersonal and direct interaction among learners and instructor, and requiring self-discipline and motivation to finish the course (Kattoua, Al-Lozi, & Alrowwad, 2016). For this context of training parents in cyber wellness knowledge, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages because offering wider reach, convenience, flexibility, control, and engagement for parents should be prioritized to mitigate the problems of parents not attending current face-to-face trainings provided by organizations. The disadvantages could also be mitigated by using appropriate instructional design strategies. The e-learning package could be distributed to schools whether it is kindergarten, primary or secondary, and to community organizations that would be interested to offer cyber wellness online training for parents and guardians.

 

5. Instructional Package Goals

The e-learning package aims to help parents and guardians to: acquire knowledge and skills to effectively guide their children in cyber wellness; increase awareness and keep abreast of current cyber issues and their guidelines for their children.

 

Note: The 2nd half of this paper has been omitted due to information not required by participants of this research.

 

6. References

 

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