By Azlan Othman

MORE teens and youngsters spend their time surfing the Internet which is now a common household fixture. Ninety per cent of teenagers and youngsters are hooked to the net while the proportion for children and teens spending time in the chat rooms is now over 60 per cent, religious officials said yesterday while cautioning them on the two-edge sword of the technology.

Imams in a Friday sermon said though the technol­ogy is a great tool, it can also lure and become harmful to the teenagers with all the undesirable sites. It pollutes their mind and enables pedophiles to locate and interact with kids, which is undoubtedly dangerous for the young kids.

They called on parents, teachers, ICT practitioners and law enforcement officers to shoulder the responsibility to give protection and security on the use of Internet among their children. Parents and teachers play a role in nurturing good moral values in the minds of the children to protect them from becoming the victim of the Internet.

Kids should be trained to choose the tool wisely and to acquire knowledge that is useful. Parents need to monitor the websites that their children surf to avoid abuse.

And to mark the reading day this month and the info-telecommunication community day, Imams urged the Ummah to upgrade their knowledge and to gain more from such technology for the benefit of the present world and in the days of the hereafter.

The knowledge acquired should be taught and practiced, for the people and the nation to progress and continue to be under the protection of Allah the Al-mighty.

Imams also said that knowledge is a source of enlighten­ment and Islam urged the Ummah to acquire knowledge as much as possible. It is useless to keep one’s vast amount of wealth if such person is dearth of knowledge as such wealth would not expand, but instead trap and dupe the person.

Allah uplifts the rank of a knowledgeable person. Allah gives mankind the ability to think to distinguish the good from the bad, the truth from the lies. With knowledge, one’s life pathway can be managed correctly and will always be under the guidance of Allah. By reading, one can gain more knowledge.

The culture of reading should be embraced. The culture should be nurtured at a tender age and parents should set a good example to their children.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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