PARENTS MUST ACCOMPANY CHILDREN WHEN ACCESSING FACEBOOK: MINISTER

Jakarta, Feb 19 (ANTARA) - State Minister for Women's Empowerment Linda Amalia Sari has asked parents to accompany their teenagers when accessing the social networking website 'facebook' which is now much loved.

"Parents have to accompany and watch their teenagers when accessing facebooks or other social networking websites," the minister told Antara here on Friday.

The minister made the statement in response to the wide coverage of some media about abduction cases and the loss of youths due to the victims of friends on Facebook.

Parents should not blame the increasingly sophisticated technology that continues to grow significantly, the minister said.

"Do not blame the facebook, but it is the parents' supervision which must be improved," she cited, adding that accompanying teenagers in using the facebook is the right solution to the problem.

"The most important thing is that the parents must accompany and watch their teenage children in using the facebooks or other social networking websites, and not ban (the technology) because such prohibition will not be effective," she reminded.

In addition, the minister also urged school teachers to
participate in guiding their students by informing them about the positive and negative impacts of using the social networking sites.

Recently, four students at state senior high school (SMU) 4 in Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands province, have been expelled for insulting a female teacher on the social networking website facebook, a source said.

"We have expelled them for posting dirty words about female teachers on facebook," the school`s vice principal, Yose Rizal, said last Friday.