Andini: 5 of 7 Parents Finding Hate Speech on Social Media

Jakarta, PPIM – A survey conducted by Our Family Program showed that around five out of seven parents had admitted that they frequently found hate speech against certain religions, ethnicity and races in cyberspace.

The survey, aimed for examining parents’ behaviour on the internet, was presented in a virtual seminar entitled “Roles of Family in Religious Moderation” held on Friday (22/1). The seminar was part of the 18^th virtual talk show series of #ModerasiBeragama (Religious Moderation) themed “Mass Organizations, Ulema and Religious Moderation” organized by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta through Convey Indonesia program.

Presented by Siti Nur Andini of Our Family Program, the survey also found that one out of 10 parents never checked the information they received before forwarding them to their networks. Further, around four out of seven preferred not to reprimand the persons who committed the hate speech.

Andini, therefore, pointed out that parents and family played important roles in tackling hate speech.

“Parents are primary and the first educators for children. I am sure with that,” Andini said.

Triggered by the fact that family played crucial roles for children, Andini formulated a family education curriculum built from cinta (love). “CINTA is an acronym – C is for cara (ways), I is for impian tinggi (high dreams), N is for nerima tanpa drama (to accept without drama), T is for tidak takut salah (to not afraid of making mistakes) and A is for asyik bermain bersama (having fun together),” she said.

The curriculum was expected to encourage parents to build reflective relationships with their children, so that they could practice positive discipline. Andini also warned parents that punishment was unnecessary in educating children, because it would only hamper the process of effective learning and make the children not ready to face the world.

She also encouraged parents to support and always listen to their children, build empathy and effective communication, and set up a good interaction so that the children felt comfortable in expressing their opinions. “A good relationship [between parents and children] comes from little things they do every day,” Andini said.

The seminar was moderated by Professor Jamhari Makruf, as the Team Leader of Convey Indonesia, and presented other speakers, including Arief Subhan, the research coordinator on “Homeschooling” from PPIM UIN Jakarta, and filmmaker Noor Huda Ismail, the producer of “Seeking the Imam” documentary film.

Writer: Andita Putri Ghassani
Editor: Fikri Fahrul Faiz