Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE Sin Chew Daily
A 15-year-old girl met with a friend she made through a social networking website to work on cosplay costumes was killed as she fought back when the man tried to rape her. The girl's misfortune is a deep grief for her family, as well as an alarm for parents with teenage children.
The apple of discord implies two common social problems. Firstly, the 23-year-old suspect and the girl, Ng Yuk Tim, are both from single-parent families and secondly, they made friends through a social networking website. Although Ng's parents have divorced, she was still loved by her mother, grandfather and other relatives. She was innocent and lacked the sense to guard against others. She enjoyed excessive freedom even she was still under age, leaving room for the suspect to commit the crime and resulted in the tragedy. Meanwhile, the suspect's mother had deserted the family when he was young and his father died about a year ago. He claimed to have been abused by his father and might thus, formed his crooked personality. The incident showed the significant influence of family harmony and parenting style on children.
In today's Internet era, modern computer technology has dominated many people's daily lives. Many teenagers are addicted to the online world and have indulged in playing online games and making friends in the virtual world. More dangerously, they meet with friends they made online without understanding their backgrounds.
We have always heard about cases in which teenage girls were raped or abducted when meeting their friends they made online and the police has received a number of similar reports involving victims aged between 13-18 years old. Ng lost her precious life when meeting with her friend she made online and this painful lesson should be a warning for parents, reminding them to pay more attention to their children, particularly in their usage of Internet. Parents should also oversee their children's habits of making friends online and chatting with strangers on social networking websites.
Social networking websites provide a convenient friend making platform, allowing Internet users to chat, no matter whether they know each other or not, particularly when they share common interests. However, the virtual world is actually full of hidden lies and pitfalls. Although there are examples showing men and women meeting online eventually ended up as life partners, the society is complicated and people's minds change. Teenagers meeting with friends they made online actually face an extremely high risk. Parents must pay close attention to children's behaviours to protect their safety. The online world is unfathomable and full of fraudulent deeds. Even adults can easily fall into traps as long as they are a bit greedy and having not enough of common sense, let alone teenagers.
Different from traditional family structures, women nowadays play also the role of bread earner and double-income families have become increasingly common. However, although it helps to improve income, parents who are busy working might be lax in disciplining and supervising their children, while neglecting their needs, causing them to spend most of the time sitting in front of computer and express their loneliness and study pressure through chatting with other netizens who they might not know on social networking websites. If parents do not understand what their children are thinking and doing, how are they going to enter their children's world to educate and guide them?
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Teenage girl murder sounds an alarm for all