LIANYUNGANG, China — Effective policing of the cyberspace is important to prevent occurences of cybercrime among the youth that leads to incidents such as school shootings instead of banning social media to children, according to a former Hong Kong police commissioner.
Responding to a question by The Manila Times, Andy Tsang Wai-hung, the current chairman of the 2026 Global Public Security Cooperation Forum Lianyungang, said in a press briefing here that countries should think the importance of "cyberpolicing" as a way to prevent young people from going astray.
Tsang compared the prevalence of cybercrime with the evolution of drug crimes, which before was done through peer groups.
"In the old days, the spread of the use of drugs was usually through peer groups. People who meet young people who meet at school or in places where they play around. But in today's world, it's the internet, it's the social media, Imagine young people, children, who are using drugs. They are more prone to using violence," Tsang said.
He is also not inclined on suggestions to ban the use of social media to children under the age of 16.
"It's easier to ban children out of their phones when they're attending school, because the school can say, well, I'm going to check your school bags to make sure that you don't have a phone. But if you say, I'm going to ban anyone under 16 from using social media, how can you do that? I don't know," Tsang said.
His comments come after the Philippines experienced several incidents of violence in schools, specifically the school shootings in Tacloban City and Zamboanga City.
The motives were alleged to have been caused by young people being exposed to violent games and social media content.
Meanwhile, Tsang said the forum, in its fifth year, the forum has expanded its outreach and raised the level of participation, with 2100 delegates coming from 139 countries and regions as well as international organizations.
Speaking at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Chinese Minister for Public Security Wang Xiaohong has proposed greater consensus on stablity, pooling strength for stability, laying a solid foundation for stability, and strengthening synergy and cooperation to ensure stable development.
He also said that China is willing to work with all parties to actively implement these proposals.
