Opening Remarks by MOS Rahayu at the Launch of Phase 2 of the First Device Campaign by TOUCH Cyber Wellness

Good evening, all. There are so many reasons for you to not be here today – it is close to Chinese New Year. It is Valentines’ Day. It is the weekend. It is raining heavily out there. But you made it. And we really want to acknowledge your presence and effort that you are making.

And I know why you do this. Because I am a parent myself. I think as parents, we would really go to the ends of the world to do the best for our children. But I also acknowledge that parenting is not easy! It is so challenging, because there are so many things you have to juggle.

Especially in today’s digital age, which some of us may not be completely familiar with. Our children are digital natives, which creates a gap in understanding for older parents like myself, who may struggle to grasp the digital world our children navigate daily.

We understand and we hear you. There are a lot of resources put out there online, which tell you to do ‘A, B, C, D’. But you are struggling, because it is not that you do not want to follow, but the realities of your life restrict you.

That is why we have come together today, to really see how we can unpack this and make it easier for you.

We are very fortunate because we have very good partners, like TOUCH Community Services, in particular, the TOUCH Cyber Wellness team who has been working on this for many years, and has been rolling out many programmes to parents.

We want to make sure that this is something that is available to many parents. This is why we are working towards bringing this into the community, translating this beyond just resources. We want to show how we can further support parents, and assure parents that they are not alone in this, and there is a community of parents out there who face the same challenges and want to do better for their child.

As such, we do such events, and we are piloting different types of events in the community. We are here because we want to work together with partners, who have the knowledge to translate it into activities near the community so that it is easier for you. We want to absorb some of this knowledge, and see how we can translate it into more activities for parents in our community.

My colleagues and I at MDDI and IMDA have been exploring ways to extend the reach of our resources, and create more connections for our partners within the community. At the end of the day, I hope that you don’t feel alone, because technology is not all that bad. It is a tool, and a way of life for our children. Moving forward, they will need to learn about technology.

We want to do this meaningfully. We also want to make sure that there are proper safeguards and support for our parents to teach our children the right values, so that they can use this tool.

We will continue to work together with more partners like TOUCH, as well as the communities, to roll this out to more families.

This is really just the start. I hope that you will join us in such events and activities, give us feedback, and participate in the exercises together. By doing so, we can learn from one another and help build an ecosystem that provides more support for parents in the community.

I am grateful for all of your presence, and I hope this is a meaningful start for all of you. I am glad to celebrate this day with you, and I look forward to engaging with you all later. Thank you.