PETALING JAYA: High school and tertiary students have been flocking to certain online pages where they confess their dirtiest secrets and read those of their peers.
The pages contain postings that range from lewd sex fetishes and illegal activities to struggles with depression and suicide.
Students submit confessions anonymously to a mystery page administrator (whose identity is always kept secret), who then publishes it on the Facebook-based confession pages, mostly without any verification of the stories.
Many of the confessions are sex-related. Some goes: “I’m not sure if I have a sex addiction. Possibly.
“I masturbate a LOT and I’m bisexual. I think it’s really unhealthy but I don’t really know how to stop.”
Others use the pages to confess their personal struggles, including one that read: “I had an abortion before about six years ago and it still breaks my heart every single day.”
Another student confessed plans to commit suicide within 60 days, while another told of how he or she turned to marijuana to ease his/her depression.
The trend has grown globally, with news reports from countries like the United States, Australia, India, South Africa, Singapore and Saudi Arabia mentioning the confession pages over the past few months.
The pages (many of which have thousands of followers) are usually linked – without approval – to a school or university, which makes it easier for students to identify who the people confessing are.
One page administrator said the students were sometimes even tagged by friends in their confessions, thus revealing their identities.
The administrator for HUCP, a confession page for HELP University students, said the university’s authorities were aware of the page.
“I don’t think it’s unhealthy. It’s just a tool. It can be used for good or bad,” said the administrator, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He added that he filtered all the confessions he received to avoid any offensive content.
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman Datuk Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi urged caution when it comes to such pages.
According to Section 114A of the Evidence Act 2010, administrators can be held liable for any offensive or defamatory content published on their pages.
“In the case where anything posted from anywhere online that breaks the law of the land, the authorities have the right to intervene and call the people involved for investigation,” said Sharil.
> For the full story on school and university confession pages, turn to today’s R.AGE cover story.
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