The Bangladesh Telecommu- nication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has proposed setting up a laboratory to examine the impact of any new technology before rolling it out for all.

“We’re concerned about the technology addiction of young people. We now want to examine the social impact of any new technology before introducing it to everybody. The BTRC has urged the government to set up a laboratory to decide on which technology to keep and which to discarded,” BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood told The Independent yesterday.      

“We’ve requested the government to consider our proposal. If it’s granted, it’ll be possible to gauge the probable social impact of a new technology,” he said.  

The flourish of new technologies has ushered in security threats— there have been incidents of violence centering Facebook posts—in the country. The government was seriously concerned with the appalling incidents in Ramu and Brahmanbaria’s Nasirnagar and even shut down Facebook temporarily.  

The Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Mustafa Jabbar, however, told The Independent that shutting down of social media platforms cannot be any solution. “It’s not the right solution. We must find alternative ways,” he said.

The BTRC chairman, however, said they are concerned about how young people are using the technology made available to them. “We’re very much concerned about the way Facebook is being used. It has become digital cocaine; young people are getting addicted to it,” he added.

According to ICT Division sources, there are 2.33 crore Facebook users in Bangladesh. As much as 99 per cent of social media users are using Facebook. Among them, 1.7 crore are male users and 63 lakh are female users. More worryingly, 93 per cent of Facebook users are aged between 18 to 34 years.  

A survey, conducted by UNICEF in March, says 13 per cent of minors are harassed on social media. “Around 3.6 per cent were victims of harassment on multiple occasions. And another 3.3 per cent closed their social media accounts due to harassment,” it states.

The survey also says 81.2 per cent of children spend time on social media and 90 per cent use mobile phones to access the Internet.

Of the participants, 52.3 per cent said they would become friends with unknown persons on social media.

The UNICEF survey was conducted on 11,821 children aged between 13 and 18 years. It states that 67.4 of the respondents access the Internet for learning purposes and 21.4 per cent go online to make new friends through social media. Over 62 per cent of juvenile Internet users said they remained cautious about sharing any information on the Internet, while 29 per cent mentioned that they interacted with unknown persons but did not share any personal pictures or other information.

Facebook is not being used for creative purposes, said the BTRC chairman. “We’ll soon propose a special initiative for creative use of the Internet,” he added.

The government says there are more than 8 crore Internet users in Bangladesh. However, GSMA estimates the number to be 3.5 crore.

“We’re taking several initiatives to make the Internet available to all. Fibre optic cables are being laid down miles after miles. But we’re not attaching much importance to the possibility of cyber security threat,” said Shahjahan Mahmood.