Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar “Most young people are not interested in online safety. They just ignore this and use their phone. They just post anything and give any comments that they want. And sometimes it can offend others or make others angry.” Male, 34 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) “Posting funny posts, daily information is safe. However, not with the political news; which means if they comment about the President and Political parties, there were some cases some of them got arrested by [authorities]. If we are only posting notopposing posts but only using educational and technical posts, they are safe.” Male, 29 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) The risk of having their account ‘hacked’ was raised by both adults and young people, and examples of sexual harassment or extortion were raised by a number of female participants. “Some young people can encounter sexual harassment and can be sued from what they post in Facebook as there is still no freedom of expression. Also, they have to worry about hackers. A friend’s account was hacked some weeks ago. The hackers can steal information from her and can use her profile information.” Female, 30 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) “It is not safe for girls. Some boys/men disturb the girls by calling them through phone, WeChat and Viber. The calls are from both known and unknown people. Sometimes the girls receive dirty pictures from unknown contacts.” Female, 22 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) None of the respondents revealed any specific incidents of online danger they had experienced themselves, but many spoke of incidents involving others that they had heard about (though few of them actually knew the people involved). The majority of responses from adults were about financial scams, while most responses from young people (both boys and girls) were about online sexual harassment of young girls, by both people they know and online predators who tried to form relationships with them or extort them for money or sexual images. This was consistent with the FDGs, in which harassment was one of the most resounding themes identified. “My friend…posted her picture in Facebook and a man from Malaysia threatened her by saying that she has to give him answer (love him back). If not, he will photoshop her picture with him and post it on Facebook. This would harm our girl’s dignity.” Female, 18 years, Kaman Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “Some predators download and use girls’ picture in bad way.” Male, 22 years, Kayah Buddhist, Ve Seh Ku village (Kayah State rural) “A friend of mine posted her pictures on Facebook. Someone then photoshopped her picture into a sexy image and tried to extort money from her… She was very worried and asked me for a suggestion. I told her not to pay the money but to block that account. She followed that and the account stopped threatening her.” Female, 22 years, Rakhine Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) 59