GELUGOR, January 22 – NETHICS, a social campaign that advocates on the right etiquette of social media concluded on 18 January 2022, 10.00-11.30am after two months of special events and activities. Organised by the final year students majoring in Persuasive Communication, from the School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), NETHICS’ main objective was to create awareness and educate young social media users on the right etiquette of social media usage, ways in curbing cyber harassment issues among youth and nurture a practice of professional personal branding for better career opportunities.
As a parting gift, NETHICS has organised NETHICS: Retrospect! where participants and supporters of the cause came together to celebrate its success and also learn more about social media etiquette with the regulator for the converging communications and multimedia industry in Malaysia, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Held via the online platform of Cisco Webex, the spectacular closing ceremony featured the keynote address of Puan Saidatul Ashikin Abu Hassan, the Director II, Department of Community Programs, MCMC, on “Achieving safe, secure and responsible Internet use towards producing productive youths”. Puan Saidatul revealed insightful data on the usage of social media platforms among Malaysians and surprisingly Malaysians are spending
approximately nine hours a day on the Internet, higher than the global average. In terms of exponential growth in e-Commerce, Malaysia sits at sixth place on the highest daily time spent using the Internet in the world, especially during the pandemic. Thus, these statistics prove the importance of raising awareness pertaining to social media etiquette among Malaysian users.
Furthermore, Puan Saidatul mentioned that there are many ways to self-regulate one’s Internet usage. She strongly advised against meeting someone you know online especially in isolation. Instead, she stressed on choosing a safe public space to ensure your personal safety. In terms of dealing with cyber harassment, it is vital that our emotions are stable and to avoid any hasty reactions. “Ignore. Block. Report. – that is our mantra against cyberbullying.” she explained.
Overall, this event was to celebrate the achievements by NETHICS throughout the course of the campaign. Among the events that have been held are:
- ArtSpace Competition – A digital art competition aimed at exposing Malaysian youth to netiquette through creative expression.
- AskNETHICS! – A sharing session on branding with guest speakers Lunnie Gan (Founder of Pencil Rocket), Poorani Kannan (Marketing Lead of LineHayat) and Jasmine Regina (Founder of Giasemi).
- TalkSpace – A webinar by advocates against cyber harassment issues, Narvinni Jayakumar (Miss Petite Universe International Semenanjung 2020 and Founder of Project #Cybercancelled) and Jessi Yong Tse Shing (Researcher on Cyberbullying and Part Time Lecturer of TAR University College), to share their experiences and how they overcame it which was attended by over 400 participants.
- NETHICS WorkSpace – A workshop with personal branding mentors, Krista Goon (Co-founder of Redbox Studio) and Khusboo Nangalia (Founder of BEYOND99), to educate youth towards a more professional digital footprint, attended by over 110 participants.
NETHICS or No-Ethics? – An augmented reality (AR) filter game on the official social media platform Instagram, NETHICS to increase youth awareness of social media etiquette. This game was carried out twice with two different filters and sets of questions. The first filter gained 4k impressions on Instagram throughout the three day period. The second filter garnered 3.5k impressions on Instagram in the duration of three days.
Apart from that, winners of the NETHICS’ digital art competition, ArtSpace, were announced during the closing ceremony. The prizes were given to the winners who have participated in the competition by designing their own artistic portrayal of the theme “Internet Safe Space”. All of the artwork was evaluated by a professional panel of judges, ranging from the industry and academic experts in arts and design. The grand prize category went to Amar Ikhwan bin Ahmad, followed by 1st runner up to Gan Zhi Dong, 2nd runner up to Tay Heen Win and consolation prizes to Ng Qiao Yi, Debbyana Malida Binti Himi Rozaini and Nurul Amira Ramli.
NETHICS Retrospect! came to an end with an emotional montage from the team on the commencement of the campaign, together with various viewpoints from the invited guest speakers, lecturers of the School of Communication and the team members.
The NETHICS team would like to express their appreciation and thanks to all parties who were willing to help make this campaign a success. As said by NETHICS Project Director, Larissa Lorelle Christian, “We hope to have everyone take the phrase “smarter words, safer net” not merely as a tagline but more so a reminder every day when we go online.”
Even though this campaign has ended, it does not mean that we should stop our efforts to ensure a safe Internet environment for all. Therefore, NETHICS hopes that the youth can start practising social media etiquette in their daily lives. For further information, do visit our website at https://nethicsusm.wixsite.com/nethicsusm or contact us directly via the details provided below.
