Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar many young people do). A number of adults were concerned about young people forming romantic relationships online, both in terms of leading to early marriage or sexual activity, and the potential for social media to be used as an online sexual harassment tool after a relationship breakdown. There were also reports of hearing stories about girls who had been raped after meeting up with men they had first met online. Many girls believed that online sexual harassment reflected the offline harassment they were subjected to from boys and men on a daily basis (e.g., ‘cat calls’, derogatory comments about clothing choices). There was a distinct lack of awareness by boys that this constituted sexual harassment and was such an issue for girls. In addition to its role in online sexual harassment, sexual content (i.e., pornography) was suggested to be responsible for the ways some boys related to girls in offline relationships. Sharing behaviours Sharing behaviours reflected the things young people were interested in, including news, sport, entertainment (including celebrity news), health tips, and educational content. Urban-based young people were generally more engaged with national news and politics, while rural-based young people were more interested in local news and events. Using social media (notably YouTube) to gain knowledge, educate themselves (including learning English), and seek online and offline education opportunities was a common theme among all young people. Around half of survey respondents reported posting selfies on social media. Girls (particularly from rural villages) were less likely to do so, reflecting reports that parents had encouraged their daughters not to post images of themselves on social media (due to the risk of imagebased abuse). Some young people said that their teachers had advised them not to post their locations (i.e., check-ins, location tags) on social media. Responses were mixed when young people were asked whether they posted their opinions about the government or other divisive issues. No participants admitted to doing this themselves (many saying that they ‘wouldn’t dare’) but reported seeing such opinions posted by others, mainly in the comments of news story posts. A common perception among adults was that young people often share controversial posts and stories without considering the consequences, while many young people thought that older adults were the ones who most often did this. In contrast, Muslim IDP adults believed that their young people were very wary of their social media activity, and instead discussed controversial topics and stories in more private channels such as WeChat and IMO. Impact on daily lives and psychological well-being Some Muslim IDP young people spoke of the psychological impact of seeing hate speech on social media targeted at them. They said seeing such hate speech made them feel sad, stressed, angry and hopeless. Others were confused as to why they were being told they did not belong in the country in which they and their parents were born. Other Muslim IDP young people said social media gave them a sense of escape from their camp, entertaining them when they felt sad and connecting them to the outside world. However, for some this reminder of the outside world just made them more upset. Several Muslim IDP adults thought that social media played a positive role in the moral and religious education of their young people, many of whom had never attended a mosque or religious school due to their displacement. It also gave them a sense of hope by connecting them to people from other ethnicities who are working towards equality. Overall, most young people thought that social media has both a positive and negative impact on their lives. Despite the negative impact of hate speech, Muslim IDP young people were much more likely to think that social media has a mostly positive impact on their lives, reflecting the importance that social media has for connecting them to the world outside of their camp. The most common positive impacts of social media on young people’s daily lives were the ability to connect with friends and relatives across distance, and the ability to gain knowledge, both related to their education (e.g., learning English), practical skills (e.g., how to repair broken equipment, health tips) and to news and current affairs (particularly events outside their region). The most common negative impacts were associated with fake news, harassment, hate speech, and other offensive content. 97