WE REFER to Mr Tan Shao Ken's Forum Online letter, 'Why not introduce Net filter here' (Aug 10).

The Government has always placed a high premium on safeguarding our young and vulnerable from harmful and undesirable online content. However, given the global and borderless nature of the Internet, there are practical limitations to what the Government can do to regulate the Internet. The Media Development Authority (MDA) has, therefore, adopted a pragmatic approach which emphasises public education and industry co-regulation in addition to a light-touch regulatory framework via the Class Licence Scheme. Please refer to www.mda.gov.sg for details.

An industry co-regulation initiative is the Family Access Network (FAN), which filters out pornographic and other undesirable sites. An example of this is StarHub's 'SafeSurf', which is available to its subscribers. Parents could also opt for a suitable desktop filtering software.

Such optional filtering services, which filter out pornographic and other undesirable sites, empower parents to better manage their children's Internet access.

While filters and laws can help to protect our youth from harmful online content, ultimately, education and cyber safety awareness are the best safeguards against undesirable online content.

MDA promotes cyberwellness values through ongoing public education programmes with partners. In addition, the Government has set up the Inter-Ministry Cyberwellness Steering Committee, which is chaired by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and the Ministry of Education. This taskforce will coordinate national efforts and develop strategies for the protection of minors and promotion of cyberwellness in Singapore.

This taskforce will also work with the Internet and Media Advisory Committee, which was set up in 2007 to advise MDA on public education programmes and initiatives to promote media literacy and cyberwellness.

We thank Mr Tan for his views and encourage parents and educators to work hand-in-hand to inculcate safe Internet usage in our children and youth. Shared responsibility and joint participation engender the responsible use of new media tools.

Yuvarani Thangavelu (Ms)
Deputy Director (Licensing Policy)
Development Policy
Media Development Authority

This article was first published in The Straits Times.