How vulnerable are we to this kind of deliberate manipulation, Nathalie?

Singapore is an example of a very highly connected, very advanced digital society where you have actually almost every single person having access to not just more than one device, but more than one platform.

But at the same time, even with this very highly connected sort of access to global platforms, we also have actually in a way relatively very localised information environment.

In other words, when there's an issue that comes up, it can get very quickly viral sometimes.

And also the other issue is also the fact that even if there are bills, there are actually people who call it out online, there are also other platforms that people can get into, such as encrypted platforms where they can actually continue to chatter.

So in other words, yeah, we have a whole society of people who don't just have, I guess, access to what they can see unfolding on the world stage, which can sometimes frame the way and influence the way they look at different issues.

But they also have access to actually very different platforms where they can take some of these conversations.

So I

Is that a dangerous perception to hold on

to? I guess I take the position where I am compassionate enough I feel for parents, right? I think for parents, for many parents, they are increasingly aware of the harmful content that their children might be exposed to.

And it's not just content, right? There's also increasingly cases where teenagers especially are being targeted by malicious actors using various platforms and games, messaging services.

So I think for parents, they are... increasingly aware that there are things going on online and also increasingly aware that things are happening so quickly that they have trouble keeping up.

So I think for many parents and caregivers, there are sort of logical responses.

What can be done? Should we make platforms be more responsible? Should governments regulate more, legislate more? And I think that's sort of my sense of what's happening now.

How are the platforms going to establish this? And is that also risky and dangerous? Because what's going to prevent somebody from pretending to be part of this age group and infiltrating in a way? It's got to be rather robust.

Yeah, so I think that is one sort of issue with age assurance that malicious actors can potentially sort of pass off the identity, right? I think another big issue is actually really the privacy, personal data of children, right? And how our platforms work.

So without further delay, I'll hand the time over to Natalie, who will share with us her insights on child safety around the world.

Thank you, Carol.

Um, morning Minister, morning MOS, and distinguished guests and, uh, students as well.

Um, so I, uh, will keep my time to eight minutes to 10.

Uh, basically, uh, the thing I like to actually do in this time, right, is to set the context in terms from research that's been going on, uh, globally, right, about, uh, children and social media.

So, uh, yeah, that's the focus of my sharing here, right? What does current research tell us about children's use of social media? Uh, before I start, I just want to say generally, right, uh, research on social media and children in particular has been actually, uh, quite, um, difficult, right, challenging, uh, globally, but also especially in Asia and Singapore.

And this has to do with a few iss- reasons, right? Uh, I think of course the first is actually research ethics guidelines, uh, make actually researching or researching children, uh, very challenging.

Social media addiction and while addressing regulation paradox.

How significant is this shift?

Hmm.

Yeah, that's a really great question.

I think with traditional keyword search, right, what we have always sort of been working with, and I guess struggling with, is that the burden is often on the user to guess the right keywords, right? Then if you come up with the right keywords, the search engine then match your keywords against sort of an index, right, and then it churns out relevant information.

Now, with AI, what we are seeing is really a fundamental shift of this process, where instead of trying to hope that the user can come up with the right keywords-

Mm.

And this is where responsible use of AI comes in, right? I think responsible use is not to say, "Don't use at all," right? It is about getting students to understand how they can use in a way that is productive, but also doesn't replace what they're supposed to learn and what they're supposed to do.

And of course, yeah, there are some fundamental principles, as I said, right, that, uh, the university makes very clear.

Your thoughts on that, Dr. Pang?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we should also remember when the internet started, right? It started with the aim to create this sort of democratized access to information.

And then we also see that, I mean, obviously, it went beyond just providing information and having access to information.

People started using it for good, right? Advocating certain causes, raising awareness, about issues that we otherwise would not know about, right? And that is very powerful in its own right.

But of course, I think what we are also seeing is that as access to the internet and social media platforms become more and more ubiquitous, right? It becomes so easy to post something.

We also begin to see this diffusion of that platform into our personal everyday communications.

Okay, Professor Pang, perhaps you can kick us off.