Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar “A longtime friend offended me… he asked me a bad question: “Have you ever done it?” I just answered “No”. He later threatened [to share] screenshots of what we have chatted [about] before and send to other people. I was so angry, I thought “why is he doing this?” He also asked me to show my upper body part. I said no… The lucky thing is I have a friend who is cousins with him, I asked [my friend] to delete those pics and messages while he is out. Now I have blocked him. He apologized to me and said he won’t do it again… I did not tell anything to my mother, only a friend. I do not trust anyone anymore.” Female, 18 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) A couple of respondents had heard about stories of young girls being raped when meeting up with strangers who contacted them online. Some thought that these reports of rape were linked to watching pornographic content. “Not in this region but in the province or other place, I have seen it. Usually, the girl will contact through online and get raped.” Male, 18 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “The young people watch 18+ content video or images. This can result in rape or sexual harassment. They want to have experiences of what they see online… There have been 4-5 rape cases because of watching 18+ content video online.” Female, 30 years, Kayan Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) Other online dangers discussed by young people included defamation from other users, and online shopping, both as a buyer and seller. “A boy always asked her girlfriend to send him phone credit, and the girl got angry and blocked him. As a consequence, the boy posted on his Facebook saying that the girl had cheated a lot of money from him.” Male, 24 years, Kayah Christian, Loikaw (Kayah State urban) “Once a company contacted me and said they have a promotion and offered me to buy a phone together with a watch. When they spoke to me, they spoke very sweet and also quick, which made it hard for me to understand. In the end, I agreed to buy the phone and when it arrived the quality was really bad. Although they said it has one-year guarantee, as we lived in the restricted areas, it is hard to contact them back and fix the product when it is broken.” Male, 29 years, Rohingya Muslim, Basara (Rakhine State IDP) “Some of my friends sell clothes online. They got order from some people but after they sent the clothes, they didn’t receive the payment back from those who ordered.” Female, 22 years, Rakhine Buddhist, Sittwe (Rakhine State urban) When asked if parents and teachers were able to help young people navigate dangers online, the majority of respondents (across all ages and demographics) believed that adults were generally not knowledgeable enough to be able to do so (some made an exception for educated adults). A common theme was that rather than teach young people how to stay safe online, parents sought to restrict the amount of time they spent online or warned of the physical and educational consequences of overuse. “They don’t teach their children as they don’t know about internet. Their generation is like us, we just started using phones now.” Male, 35 years, Kayah Buddhist, Daw Lyar Ku & Htee Teh Kaloe Villages (Kayah State rural) 60