“A Lesson We Shouldn’t Have Had to Learn This Way.”
In early October, a fatal stabbing at a secondary school in Malaysia shocked the nation when a 16-year-old girl was allegedly stabbed up to 200 times by her 14-year-old schoolmate. He committed the act by following the girl to the bathroom and climbing over the toilet cubicles where he attacked her multiple times, before attempting to harm other students in the school by chasing after them. Panic broke out in the school before the suspect was constrained and disarmed by the teachers and his elder brother. Initial investigations report that the suspect’s actions stemmed from his unrequited love though potential further motives remain unclear.
The nation was outraged by the news. While most netizens are grieving for the loss of an innocent girl the Internet is also swamped with debates and speculations regarding the motivations behind the suspect’s actions. This tragedy also prompted urgent discussions about school safety, youth mental health, and the growing culture of aggression among students.
Speculations of motivations :
In considering the motivations that drove the youth to engage in such violence, many quickly turned to the role of social media and online graphic video games, arguing that these platforms have desensitised and demonised the younger generation. The Malaysian government responded by proposing measures such as the reintroduction of caning in schools, stricter phone bans, and even a nationwide restriction on social media use for those under 16. However, while such proposals may appear decisive and effective, they ultimately fail to address the deeper social and emotional root causes that drive youth aggression.
Though it is undeniable that social media did shape the suspect’s world view in some shape or form, it is crucial to note that these platforms present equal risks to all users online, not just the vulnerable. It is rather how individuals are guided to navigate the digital world that dictates how
we are impacted by the information fed to us. Hence in this case, effective regulations and digital literacy foundation should serve as the foundation of any long-term solution.
In this extreme but alarming case, the suspect left a note referencing and mentioning a string of names which are all identified as American High School attackers, directly paying tributes to them as he identifies himself as part of the ‘Columbiners Community’. The ‘Columbiners Community’ refers to an online subculture of people (often teenagers or young adult) who have drawn fascination or even idolize the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre orchestrated by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. This online subculture, though originating in Western contexts, has found its way into Southeast Asia’s digital spaces through algorithmic recommendations and loosely moderated online communities. Whilst not all members in the community are prone to violence or sympathetic to mass shootings, the community is infamous for potentially romanticizing school shooters, either via glorifying their writings or beautifying their images.
Platforms such as Youtube and TikTok can inadvertently amplify a user’s exposure to their interested content when users interact and engage in videos related to depression, school life, or bullying. Algorithms could lead them down a deeper path and a spiral of negative thoughts, eventually arriving at an echo chamber of despair. This makes social media a slow and private radicalization space where these isolated individuals seek comfort by for instance, viewing these school shooters like their ‘antiheroes’ rather than criminals, which is a distorted form of self-validation. However, we have to bear in mind that social media is rarely the origin of such behaviour. The deeper catalyst often lies in prolonged feelings of neglect, rejection, and the absence of meaningful emotional support, resulting in the youth feeling isolated, neglected or in some scenarios, bullied in real life.
Studies on bullying or youth disengagement often points to the fact that many perpetrators are motivated not only by dominance, but also driven by a feeling of retaliation and revenge. This is a psychological response from those who had perceived discrimination, injustice and oppression in their life. These neglected resentments grow in dark corners of their minds and translates into irreversible violence and damage, further catalysed by the dark spaces social media provides as an outlet of emotions.
Who is to be blamed?
Nevertheless, social media has become an overused scapegoat in scenarios as such, hence resulting in the public overlooking the real structural issues within our society. The absence of love and care amongst teenagers has long been recognised as a root cause for mental distress for many. During adolescence (12-18 years old), neglected youth are 4 times more likely to develop mental-conditions, and they are more likely to engage in risky activities. This is further evidenced in the rise of mental health conditions amongst youth where 13·2% of youth in Malaysia are diagnosed with anxiety and depressive disorders. According to UNICEF (2022), one in six Malaysian youth experience depressive symptoms, and nearly one in five high schoolers show signs of depression, which serves as a stark indicator of growing distress.
However, this issue begins far earlier than adolescence. In fact, the more concerning issue that needs to be addressed in society is the role parents play in inducing social media to the future generations. There is an increasingly visible trend of parents-induced addiction amongst infants. In our society today, parents rely heavily on digital devices and platforms such as Youtube to pacify children, often under the guise of “educational” videos that replace real emotional interaction. At restaurants back home, I often see “well-behaved” children who are fully invested in YouTube videos and their parents relieved by the silence. The phone has become a modern pacifier, used as a convenient tool to negotiate obedience with their kids. This parenting habit does come with heavy, long-term emotional costs. It is therefore no surprise that in the long-term, children are increasingly unwilling to share their inner feelings or thoughts to their parents. As these children grow, they continue to struggle in articulating distress or form meaningful connections, leaving them vulnerable to find their sense of belonging online due to the emotional distance in real life. Thus, this exemplifies that the problem is not technology itself, but the unnoticed erosion of emotional presence in early childhood.
Another crucial aspect that leads to increasing distress and widening gap between parents and children is the mode of success-driven parenting and competitive schooling which are prevalent in Asian societies. Students are cared for materially but not emotionally, where they are conditioned to equate self-worth with grades and achievements. The irony is that instead of being spaces for curiosity and connection, schools become arenas of competition where students are positioned to compete against one another, each striving for another perfect score or to be thehighest in the class. This sense of toxic competition and peer pressure prompts the need to rebuild a sense of emotional literacy amongst youth, in order to avoid further exacerbating the emotional void within youngsters. With that said, a reformative policy that addresses the need of youth has to look beyond the punitive measures and strive towards empowering students to articulate their feelings, manage conflict and rejections and most importantly find their self-worth beyond mere numeric values from their test scores.
Trend :
This rising trend of bullying is evident not only in Malaysia, but across the whole of South East Asia. Earlier in July, a 13-year-old girl was also found dead in her dormitory. Just over a week before this recent stabbing, a 15-year-old student was gang-raped within a school compound.
Across the border in Singapore, three primary 3 students (only 9-years-old) were suspended for bullying a classmate, where one student even issued a chilling death threat to the victim’s mother on Whatsapp via a voice message. The case sparked national outrage, with many questioning how a child at this age is capable of exhibiting such levels of aggression and awareness of violence.
These incidents should not be treated as isolated tragedies, they reflect the broader picture of a deeper crisis brewing underneath the surface in our society. We shouldn’t have had to experience these back-to-back tragedies to recognise the failing structure. But now, the real question is : what will we do next to rebuild our society?
Recommendations and potential policy responses :
As the ‘digital natives’ in this era, a ban would only mean disconnecting young people to the wider world. At the current pace of technological growth, equipping youth with the critical skills to manage social media responsibly and to utilise social media as a force for good is far more sustainable than imposing blanket restrictions.
Hence, it is important that we translate the policy recommendations below into practice as soon as possible :
Recommendation 1 : Strengthening the role and influence of parents Adolescence is a turbulent phase where young people seek validation, approval and attention. Parents play a vital role during this period of growth by providing emotional grounding when youth are easily influenced by peer pressure and social conditions around them, where they are most susceptible to risky activities at this time. It is important that parents are aware of the early signs of emotional distress and are willing to make efforts to build healthier digital habits within
the household by communicating with their child. A culture of open communication needs to be normalized within households.
Recommendation 2 : Replacing screen time with meaningful activities As cliche as it might sound, one root cause for the ongoing addiction of youth towards social media is the lack of exposure to meaningful and fulfilling alternatives. Social media is a great place for youth to seek a sense of belonging and socialisation, yet also one that hinders the practical application of social skills. Hence, it is essential for youth to engage in as many community activities as possible and to ensure a high level of social interaction in their day to day life. As some critics aptly put it, in this era of prevalent social media use, youths have become connected with the world yet disconnected from themselves and the people around them.
Recommendation 3 : Making mental health support universal and independent Schools must provide free, fully confidential and easily accessible counselling services to all students. This is ideally a service which would be directly guided and funded by the ministry of education that operates independently from school administration to ensure student trust and privacy. In addition to that, studies also show that teachers and students sometimes have differing interpretations of bullying, meaning that sometimes teachers underestimate the prevalence of bullying in the school community. This communication gap needs to be addressed to ensure that all potential cases of bullying and actions that threaten to harm the well-being of students could be countered.
Recommendation 4 : Enforcing accountability among digital platforms While platforms such as Telegram and Discord pride themselves on privacy, their lack of regulation has created breeding grounds for online radicalisation. In order to allow the use of such platforms in the region, it is important that our government step up and demand companies to comply with mandatory safety protocols, including content moderation, age-appropriate algorithms, and efficient reporting mechanisms for harmful communities.
Final Thoughts :
School is meant to be a safe haven for youngsters to learn, a place that, while not everyone is excited to wake up for, still offers exciting opportunities for growth and blossoming of friendships. Yet, it no longer feels that way. Following this tragedy, the school implemented security policies by conducting bag searches for students. As students arrive at school, teachers have to use metal detectors scanning to ensure that students are not bringing violent weapons into the school areas.
But since when do schools have to operate like airport security? Why would parents ever have to worry about not being able to see their child return home safely from a place meant to protect them? This tragedy is not just a life loss, it exemplifies to us a failing structure in our society.
In the end, no girl should ever have to fear for her life for saying no. And no child should ever think that violence is the only way for them to be heard.
