Recent surveys have registered the increasing use of computers and the Internet across Singapore. In the 2004 annual survey on infocomm usage, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) conducted research on 2,000 households and 2,000 individuals. ¹

From the survey, findings indicated that more people own computers and have Internet access at home as compared to five years ago.

In addition, according to three annual surveys under the Singapore Internet Project conducted by Nanyang Technological University from 1999-2001, Internet adoption among youth was even faster than that of the general population, with more than 90% of 13 to 15-year-olds described as regular Internet users by 2001, spending an average of 9.8 hours each week on email and online chats, information search and cyber entertainment. ²

According to a June 2005 survey by global market intelligence company Synovate, Singapore youth are more connected than their counterparts in the region. Most of the time when Singapore youth use the Internet, 68% of them access interactive communications, the highest in the Asia Pacific region, with regional statistics at an average of 50%.³

Singapore youth mainly use the Internet to search for information, email, download files, chat or participate in Internet Messaging.

The 2004 IDA survey listed the most popular online applications for Internet users aged 15 and above: ⁴

Online Application	Usage
E-mail	95.2%
Online Information Retrieval/Search	82.3%
Download Application Software	61.5%
Online Government Related Transactions	55.5%
Chat/Instant Messaging	53.9%

The IDA figures were similar to a 2004 Singapore Youth and the Internet survey conducted by second-year media students at the Singapore Polytechnic. The findings involved interviews with 800 youths, aged between 15 and 29. ⁵

The most popular online applications for these youths were as follows:

Online Application	Usage
Search for Information	98.1%
Email Account	96.0%
Downloaded or Shared Files	80.4%
Instant Messaging	66.9%
Chat Rooms/Forums	55.3%

BLOGGING

One of the most prevalent Internet trends has been the rise of blogging. Blogs, or web logs, are essentially online diaries which can either be read by a select audience or open to the Internet community at large. A blog is defined as a Website with dated entries, usually by a single author, and is often accompanied by links to other blogs that the site's editor visits on a regular basis. ⁶

Some interesting information about blogs

• Blogs did not become popular until the late 1990s.
• Early blogs were mostly lists of recommended links with some commentary. Since then, they have evolved to encompass a whole host of different functions. For instance, some blogs are created for bloggers to write about their daily observations to family and friends. Other blogs are used to make political statements, promote products and provide research information.

• Unlike a personal diary, blogs allow youth to share about events in their lives with their closest friends as well as those overseas.
• Some youth choose to write about unpleasant encounters involving their friends online so that they would not have to personally confront the situation.
• Yet others choose to write blogs so that their parents would not have as easy an access as if they had written a physical diary. ⁷

• It encourages the diversity of thought – ideas are evaluated based on merit, not on source of origin.
• Filtering – ideas with merit are filtered through various blogs. Significant thoughts or posts receive multiple-links.
• Multiple perspectives – one-sided perspective of newspapers are replaced by passionate debates exploring virtually every facet of an idea or concept.
• Barrier elimination – society is about barriers – actual or unspoken. Blogging allows elites to communicate with people across barriers.
• Free flow – any idea can be expressed and accessed by anyone. The process of blogging separates good ideas from poor ideas. The process itself has built-in quality control.
• Real time – discussions and interactions happen right NOW.
• Links and connections – the complexity of an information-heavy society requires specialisation. Yet specialisation is futile if a process is not created to link specialties. Blogging strings together disparate fields of interest and thought.
• Blogs can be used in the education field to help students learn in a medium they are comfortable with. For instance some schools have embarked on blogging-based reading programmes to help their students learn better. ⁹

• Blogging contributes to Internet addiction, especially when bloggers spend a significant part of their waking hours either updating their blogs or reading other people's blogs.
• Social/physical isolation – some bloggers communicate about their life experiences only through their blogs and in the process neglect healthy social interactions with others.
• Offensive remarks could be propagated to generate hate among the masses. A landmark case was the jailing in October 2005 of two Singapore bloggers under the Sedition Act for posting racist remarks online. ¹⁰ Another case in point was the suspension of five Junior College girls from school in August 2005 for posting offensive remarks about their teachers on their blogs.¹¹
• Personal details of bloggers facilitate Internet crime – especially in the instances when would-be criminals utilise the information published on blogs to identify and assess potential victims for their future crimes.

GAMING

Online gaming (or Internet gaming), which has been around for over 20 years, first saw its popularity soar with the rise of the Internet. Over the years, it has grown from an online trend to a new force that has attracted and continues to attract a large proportion of Internet users.

What are online games?

• Online games refer to real-time games where players compete with one another on the Internet platform.
• One such gaming platform is Massive Multi-player Online Games (MMOG), where thousands of people connected to the Internet can engage in games simultaneously.
• While some of these online games are offered free, others require players to pay a subscription fee.
• MMOG, unlike console games, allow players to interact and chat with one another in the virtual world.
• Arguably, this could enhance youths' communication skills but it is imperative that negative consequences like cyber theft and gaming addiction be considered. It should be highlighted that youths do not only get addicted to the games but also the alternative virtual space of escape offered by many such games.
• When the erosion of the boundary line between the real and virtual worlds occurs, this is where the real challenge lies.

• In 2002, gaming industry experts in Singapore estimated that the number of local gamers stood at about 300,000 and projected that by 2005, the numbers would have doubled.
• A survey of Singapore's gaming landscape conducted in September 2002 by Khabal, Lycos Asia's gaming portal revealed that 58% of gamers here were aged below 25. Students made up 41% of the gaming population (making them the dominant group). Males made up 84% of gamers here; although the proportion of female gamers was expected to rise over time.¹²
• It was also noted that the ASEAN online gaming market grew over 486% on a year-on-year basis to reach total revenue of US$12.04 million in 2003, and the market was expected to record a combined compound annual growth rate of 149% in the next five years.¹³

3G TECHNOLOGY

3G is a new radio technology that allows mobile handheld devices to access Internet-based services at faster speeds compared to conventional technology. This allows mobile phone users access to streaming media such as listening to music or watching movie trailers over the Internet.

With the Singapore youth of today described as a "wireless literate generation", the mobile phone has become a personal trusted device that is capable of life management and enrichment. 3G technology has become an option of choice among youth who choose to access the Internet while on the move.

LACK OF PARENTAL GUIDANCE

The increasing use of the Internet has resulted in the parallel rise of an alarming number of safety issues which the youths of today have to grapple with. These include problems such as Internet addiction, pornography and Internet crime.

Despite such concerns, recent surveys have found that parents do not adequately convey the risks associated with the Internet to their children. This was reflected in a 2004 international survey spearheaded by the Safety Awareness Facts and Tools (SAFT) Project. The Singapore study initiated by the MDA, surveyed 1,500 parents and 1,124 teenagers from 10 local schools.¹⁴

Issue	Parents, Response	Youths, Response
Communicating about Internet Safety	67% said they discussed salient issues with their children	35% said they discussed salient issues with their parents
Surfing the Internet	54% said they surf the Internet with their children	34% said they surf the Internet with their parents
Access to Pornography	20% thought their children access pornography	66% have accessed pornography either deliberately/accidentally

ONLINE FRIENDS AND FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS

Surveys have found that Singapore youth are less likely to take safety precautions before meeting online friends, as compared to those from other countries. The SAFT survey, for instance, compared Singapore's youth Internet activities with those of their Nordic and Irish counterparts.¹⁵

Activity	Youths, Response (Singapore)	Youths, Response (Nordic & Irish)
Chat room meetings	79%	61%
Face-to-face meetings	20%	14%
Meet more than 6 persons offline	27%	16%

The Singapore figures are significantly higher when compared to data collated in the US. This was revealed in a 2002 national survey involving 1,501 US teens aged 10-17.¹⁶

Activity	Youths, Response (US)
Chat room meetings	55%
Face-to-face meetings	7%
Met online friends without telling anyone	10%

ONLINE HARASSMENT OR CYBER-BULLYING

A new development is the use of Internet for harassment or cyberbullying. According to www.cyberbullying.ca, a website set up to educate the general public about cyberbullying and to promote the prevention of such activities,

"Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cell phone and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others." ¹⁷

In Singapore, it was reported that cyberbullying, ranging from insults and pornography to hi-tech offences such as hacking into victims' accounts, is on the rise. According to Wired Safety, one of the biggest international Internet safety groups, more cyber-bullying complaints were received from Singapore than any other country except for the United States. From 2002 to 2004, the group received about 230 such complaints from Singapore. These, mostly filed through the group's website at wiredsafety.org, ranged from insults and pornography sent through email, Internet chat rooms and discussion forums, to hi-tech offences such as hacking into victims' accounts.¹⁸

INTERNET ADDICTION

Addiction is a compulsion to repeat a behaviour regardless of its consequences. Internet addiction refers to any online-related compulsive behaviour that interferes with normal living and causes severe stress on the afflicted individual and those who are close to the person. It is described as an impulse-control behaviour/disorder which is similar to pathological gambling and sexual addiction.

• It is online-related.
• It is a compulsive behaviour which interferes with normal living.
• It causes severe stress on family, friends, loved ones and one's work environment.
• It has also been described as "Internet dependency" and "Internet compulsivity". ¹⁹

Addicts do not regard the Internet merely as an information or communication tool, nor do they utilise it solely for enjoyment, but instead use the Internet as a means of escape from their problems while they spend time online, much like the numbing sensation alcoholics report when they drink. ²⁰

Symptoms of Internet Addiction include: ²¹

• Preoccupation with the Internet
• Frequent thoughts about previous online activity
• Anticipation of the next online session
• Observable increase in the amount of time spent on the Internet in order to achieve satisfaction

Persons addicted to the Internet will often have repeated, unsuccessful efforts to control, cut down or stop Internet use. They may experience withdrawal symptoms such as feelings of restlessness, moodiness, depression or irritability when attempting to cut down Internet time.

Youths are particularly at risk when they have lots of unstructured time, lack parental supervision and are likely to seek instant solutions to escape emotional stressors, some of which may be related to developmental issues.

The issue has become such a concern in China that the government set up correction centres in Shanghai and Beijing in 2005. These centres help youths come to terms with Internet addiction by holding clinics where young people can gather to discuss their struggles and come up with methods to overcome the addiction.

In Singapore, the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) has set up a Community Addictions Management Programme (CAMP) to help addicts including Internet addicts cope with their problems. These are some of its services: ²²

1. Medical and Psychiatric Assessment
2. Assessment of severity of the addiction
3. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Relapse Prevention Training, 12-Step Support, and Psycho-dynamic Therapy when necessary
4. Family Therapy
5. Individual and Group Psycho-education
6. Intensive outpatient day programmes (Bridge)
7. Medically supervised Detoxification Management
8. Medical support for co-existing conditions (e.g. depression, anxiety, etc)
9. Outpatient follow-up
10. Referral Services
11. Public education
12. Training for professionals and para-professionals

For more information on Internet addiction and how to get help, please refer to the Community Addictions Management Programme (CAMP) website.

PORNOGRAPHY

Scientific studies have demonstrated a strong correlation between exposure to pornography and subsequent deviant sexual behaviour. While no causal relationship has been conclusively demonstrated to exist between viewing pornography and deviant behaviour, there exists a well-documented correlative effect. For example, a 2004 television study conducted for the US National Institute of Child Health noted that watching sex on TV might hasten adolescent sexual initiation. ²³

In Singapore, youths were found to have more exposure to pornography compared to their counterparts from the Nordic countries and from Ireland. ²⁴

Activity	Youths' Exposure (Singapore)	Youths' Exposure (Nordic & Irish)
Encountered sexually-explicit material	54.0%	46.0%
Surfing pornography by accident	53.3%	20.0%
Surfing pornography on purpose	12.2%	16.0%

In addition, it was found that a high percentage of Singapore youth (84.2%) found it easy to access and view objectionable content on the Internet. ²⁵

Difficulty Of Viewing Objectionable Content	Youths' Exposure
Very Easy	25.0%
Somewhat Easy	59.2%
Somewhat Difficult	14.9%
Very Difficult	0.9%

Child Pornography

Child pornography has been described as the exploitation of children as the objects of pornography. In the most extreme form, children are depicted either in still or video photography performing sexual acts.²⁶ Experts have suggested that child pornography is all about fantasy – and that the practice serves as an outlet for people with stressful lives to relieve their pent-up emotions. Experts also propose that those who view child pornography could be leading a lonely life or have problems relating to people. They therefore attempt to seek solace via a secret life they lead on the computer.²⁷

Child pornography is a concern as youths can be the target of this practice. The recent phenomenon of blogging can serve to facilitate child pornography as some youths choose to post photographs of themselves online and these pictures are subsequently used or circulated by paedophiles to derive sexual pleasure.

INTERNET SUICIDE

Internet suicide takes place when two or more people form a mutual suicide pact using the Internet as a means to find each other and plan their suicide. In most cases, the victims only meet their Internet contacts for a short time prior to the group suicide attempt. Normally, the victims have no connection with one another except the desire to commit suicide with another person.

The issue has been a concern especially in Japan, with a heightened public sensitivity with reference to the matter. According to official statistics, 27 groups comprising 75 people committed suicide from January to August 2005 after making contact through websites. In the whole of 2004, 19 groups consisting of 55 people killed themselves.²⁸ The gruesome phenomenon has attracted widespread media coverage due to the relatively large number of strangers who commit suicide simultaneously. Of particular interest has been the story of a Japanese man who revealed to a BBC interviewer in 2004 that he was then in the process of choosing a partner to commit suicide with. He noted that group suicide differed from individual suicide as it seemed easier to die with others. ²⁹

Experts have suggested that the phenomenon is an attempt by the country's over-stressed youth to escape from perceived isolation and pain. The careful planning behind the Internet pacts also suggests to some extent the depths of that isolation and pain. This worrying trend of suicide pacts forged in cyberspace has recently led to four Internet industry associations in Japan deciding to release confidential information to the police about subscribers who plot online to commit suicide.³⁰

INTERNET GAMBLING

Internet gambling (or in Netspeak, nambling) is becoming an increasingly popular form of gambling and there are now an estimated 1,700 gambling websites or virtual casinos on the Internet. In addition to the Internet, users can now gamble through interactive television and mobile phones as well.

The convenience of gambling at home, the ease of setting up a gambling account and the variety of forms of gambling – from traditional betting and casino gambling to bingo and lotteries – make online gambling very appealing and highly accessible.

Singapore has set up a National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) to address problem gambling. One of the Council's main tasks is to provide advice and feedback to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) on public education programmes to promote public awareness on problem gambling.

The NCPG has listed on its website information about problem gambling:

The three stages that a person undergoes in developing a gambling addiction are: ³¹

1. The Winning Phase
   The person starts gambling as a social pastime and experiences the euphoria of winning which fuels further gambling behaviour.
2. The Losing Phase
   In this phase the gambler starts to lose control and becomes impulsive. He tries to win back his losses. If losses accumulate, he will lie and cover up to escape detection.
3. The Desperation Phase
   At this phase, life is out of control as losses become unmanageable. Gamblers feel powerless, remorseful and desperate.

• Gambling longer than intended
• Gambling until the last dollar is spent
• Thoughts of losses in gambling cause stress e.g. loss of sleep, depression or even suicide
• Using income or savings to gamble while letting bills go unpaid
• Repeated but unsuccessful attempts to give up or control gambling
• Borrowing money to finance one's gambling needs

People do recover from gambling addiction. Recovery begins with the desire to change, and the person with a gambling addiction is more likely to stay away from gambling with the right support. It is not a sign of weakness to ask for help. Honesty and consistency are key factors in recovery.

For more information on problem gambling and how to get help, please refer to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) website.

Internet crime is a term used to describe offences that are committed, or facilitated, over the Internet. Another term often used is cybercrime. These are criminal acts related to the use of computers such as:

• Gaining unauthorised access to computer to view, modify, destroy, copy or use its data
• Crimes committed using the Internet as a medium (e.g. sexual offences such as molest or date-rape; and other illegal acts like extortion, drug-peddling, the disposal of stolen property, online auction fraud and child pornography)

Crimes over the Internet can be reduced by being more cautious when communicating or making transactions online. For instance, Internet users should not reveal personal information (their full names, addresses or contact numbers) during communication, or divulge information without verifying the reliability of the transaction.

CRIMES COMMITTED OVER THE INTERNET

Crimes that are committed over the Internet, such as hacking, using computers to commit further crime and unauthorised use of Internet accounts, are in violation of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA).

• The number of youths warned or prosecuted in Court for CMA offences decreased by 15%, from 27 youth offenders in 2003 to 23 youth offenders in 2004. Some of the offences they committed include hacking and unauthorised use of Internet accounts. ³²

CRIMES FACILITATED OVER THE INTERNET

Crimes facilitated over the Internet, such as cheating and sexual offences (rape, carnal connection and outrage of modesty) are in violation of the Penal Code.

• For the period 2000 to 2004, up to 10 cases of cheating facilitated over the Internet were committed by youths annually, while seven or fewer cases of sexual offences arising out of contact via the Internet were committed by youths annually.
• Up to 20 youths fell prey to Internet-related sexual crimes annually in the past 5 years with carnal connection accounting as the most committed offence. Compared to the total number of cases involving youths who were victims of sexual crimes, youths who fell prey to Internet-related sexual offences accounted for between 1-3% of this category of victims annually (within this five-year period). ³³

Cybercrime Involving Youths ³⁴

Unauthorised Access to Computer Material
– Case Study 1

In August 2004, a 17-year-old male committed an offence of Unauthorised Access to Computer Material, in this case, an online email account.

In 2003, the victim, another 17-year old male and a friend of the accused, revealed his online email account User ID and password to the accused and asked him to read emails to him, as the victim had no Internet access at home.

Sometime in July or early August 2004, the accused came to know that the complainant, a 17-year old female and schoolmate of the accused, was going to a classmate's birthday party. As the accused was fond of the complainant, he was concerned and sent a SMS message to the complainant, advising her to return home early and ended his message with the words 'Dearie Friend'. The complainant felt uncomfortable and subsequently distanced herself from the accused.

The accused became very upset at being ignored by the complainant. The accused devised a plan to use the victim's email account to stalk the complainant on the Internet.

On 8 August 2004, the accused used the victim's email account without his consent or knowledge and logged onto MSN Messenger and chatted with the complainant. The accused then accessed the victim's online email account and sent an email with obscene attachments to the complainant. The accused sent several emails over the next few days to stalk the complainant, demanding sex and frightening her that he was on her tail.

On 13 August 2004, the complainant reported the email stalking incidents to the Police. Police investigation tracked the emails to the accused. The accused was given a stern warning by the Police.

Unauthorised Access to Computer Material
– Case Study 2

In March 2005, a 15-year old male committed an offence of Unauthorised Access to Computer Material, in this case, an online gaming account.

On 27 March 2005, the complainant, a 15-year old male and friend of the accused, logged into his Ragnorak game account and discovered that his virtual game items were missing. The accused and two other persons became the prime suspects as the complainant had given them his account password to train his game characters.

Police investigations revealed that the complainant boasted about the rare virtual game items he had. The accused was curious and without the complainant's consent, accessed the complainant's game account and transferred all the game items to his own game account. The accused was given a stern warning by the Police.

For more information on the Computer Misuse Act and Unauthorised Access to Computer Material, please refer to Singapore Statutes Online.