Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar international, causes (e.g., the planned destruction of a famous church in Kayin State by Buddhist monks), allowed people to publicly express party-political allegiances for the first time, and given people the tools to build echo chambers that deepen and encourage divisions between neighbouring ethnic or religious communities. He provides a useful historical lens for Facebook’s popularity as a ‘rumour mill’ between friends and other local networks in Myanmar, based on its likeness to how people during the era of severe censorship gathered information about the world around them, and cautions future researchers to: “resist the temptation to conceive of ‘cyber-space’ as an isolated domain of social action, but rather see it as an extension of pre-existing relationships, networks and cultural practices” (McCarthy, 2017, p. 86). Also of relevance to the current study is the Myanmar Media & Society (M.MAS) Project – a partnership between Oxford University and Myanmar IT for Development (MIDO) and led by Matthew Walton. It looks at the ways in which a developing media sector and a growing online community is influencing people’s perceptions and priorities during Myanmar’s political transition. It has a particular focus on understanding narratives that justify religious violence as well as the actions that seem to have been effective in preventing the escalation of conflict, and the role social media is playing in both. The M.MAS research team has also conducted focus group discussions and oral history interviews with a wide range of individuals in seven areas: three locations where violence has occurred already – Meikhtila and Mandalay (Mandalay Region) and Lashio (Shan State) – and four locations where violence has not occurred, but where the historical context and recent developments make research extremely salient – upper and lower Irrawaddy Region, Mawlamyine and Yangon (Walton, 2018). Looking forward, a major research project called “Social Media in Armed Conflict: The Case of Myanmar” at The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO, 2017a), is running from 2017-2020. As part of this, a doctoral thesis – “Social Media in Armed Conflict through a Gender Lens: The Case of Myanmar” – is already in progress (PRIO, 2017b). Both could be of considerable relevance to the current study. Relevant studies from outside Myanmar In recent years, an enormous body of research has been developed on the experience of children and young people online. The European Union and various UN bodies (UNESCO, UNICEF) have been particularly active in this space, as well as academic institutions from across the globe. Such is the interest in the effect of social media on youth development and offline behaviour, studies have been conducted by practitioners from a diverse array of academic disciplines using a broad range of methodologies, ranging from mass surveys, to simulations, to complex software-led, multi-year studies. While there is broad agreement that many positives can be reaped for young people via ever greater online connectivity, consistent warnings have been made about the pressing need to tackle the very real dangers they face, including cyber-bulling, radicalisation and sexual exploitation. Mitigation and protection efforts are having to battle with rapid change in social media technology and the ever-evolving online behaviour they encourage. A 2017 international study commissioned by UNICEF looking at the digital experience of children from around the world sums it up neatly, calling for “faster action, focused investment and greater cooperation to protect children from the harms of a more connected world”, while recognising that “the constant churn of new technologies…is making it hard for policy to keep up” (UNICEF, 2017, pp. 6-7). A large body of scholarship has focused specifically on what role social media plays in religious or political radicalisation of young people in different parts of the world, and what can be done to prevent it. A mapping of global research on this was conducted by UNESCO in 2017 (Alava, Frau-Meigs & Hassan, 2017). The mapping concludes that around the world, governments are working to prevent radicalisation via social media, based on an assumption there is clear cause and effect between more extreme content online and greater risk of real-world violence. However, the report cautions that proof of a strong causal link remains weak, and evidence on the effectiveness of countermeasures are thin (Alava, Frau-Meigs & Hassan, 2017). It notes that much emphasis has been placed on placing 18