Chief Sangha Nayake of America Agga Maha Panditha Ven Dr Walpola Piyananda Thera has urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to impose laws to criminalize social media indecency and violence of minors.
The Thera had made this request in the wake of recent wave of social media posts where the minors appeared in videos acting as if they were members of underworld gangs.
“This trend arose during the school holidays over the past few years and it has surpassed all limits now. The children make abusive comments in those videos portraying themselves as members of ‘Singithi Pathalaya’. These videos are immoral and repulsive to watch. They corrupt the mind-sets of other children who watch them. These could lead to adverse social effects. The future generations could be prone to violence and crimes if this continued. In the US, this type of behaviour in the social media by children below 16 years is a punishable offense where even their parents could be charged. Therefore I urge you to consider it as an urgent matter and bring in laws to criminalize these types of activities,” the Thera said in his letter to the President.
Ven Dr Piyananda Thera of Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Viharaya in Los Angeles, USA is also an International Religious Affairs Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka.