Cybersafety in education for the 21st century: A comparative study of Malaysia and Thailand
Education for the 21st Century must recognise cybersafety issues faced by students in schools. Cybersecurity threats are everywhere and students must be able to cope with an environment where cyber threats and risks persist. What are these threats and risks and how do students in Malaysia and Tha...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Published: |
2019
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/1161/1/library-document-1161.pdf http://library.oum.edu.my/repository/1161/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Institution: | Open University Malaysia |
| Summary: | Education for the 21st Century must recognise cybersafety issues faced by students in
schools. Cybersecurity threats are everywhere and students must be able to cope with
an environment where cyber threats and risks persist. What are these threats and risks
and how do students in Malaysia and Thailand handle them? This paper attempts to
compare and contrast cybersafety issues among school students in Malaysia and
Thailand. The sample for this survey comprised 1,896 students from Malaysia and
1,336 students from Thailand. The quantitative research approach was used to explore
and confirm relationship among variables. Four important factors influencing
cybersafety among students in Malaysia comprise i. availability of help through
significant others, parents and teachers (including counsellors), ii. accessing negative
sites, iii. tendency to hide things from parents, and iv. feeling of discomfort when
surfing negative sites. On the other hand, factors in Thailand include: i. ready
availability of help if bullied or proper avenues are available, ii. victim of
cyberbullying, iii. experiences of cyberbullying, and iv. experiences with accessing
negative websites. The findings showed high construct reliability and high construct
validity which was confirmed through Structural Equation Modeling. The study
showed that Malaysia and Thailand’s cybersafety issues differed significantly (p < .05)
in 6 constructs, i.e. i. existence of problematic situations or negative experiences, ii.
peer pressure, iii. parent-children gap, iv. sexting, v. cyber-bullying, and vi. dealing
with negative experience or mediation strategies. The study recommended the
following: i. parents in both Malaysia and Thailand should play a pivotal role in their
children’s well-being in cybersafety issues, ii. Malaysia and Thailand should develop
local-based strategies to suit local contexts in cybersafety issues, and iii. overcoming
new cyber risks in Malaysia and Thailand should follow best practices in other
countries which have successfully overcome them. (Abstract by authors) |
|---|