For the next 45 Sundays or so starting on July 10, Cristina Ganancial Alvarez and 45 other maids will spend more than three hours learning how to better take care of the elderly.

Part of a newly launched training course by the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (Fast), the lessons will deal with topics such as heart attacks, how to manage aggressive seniors and how to properly carry an immobile person.

The 165-hour course costs $120 after subsidies of about 75 per cent from Fast, although five of the maids were given scholarships.

One of them is Ms Alvarez. The 41-year-old Filipina looks after a household of six, including her employer and his wife who are in their 60s.

“They are still healthy… I want to be prepared because I want to work with them for a long time,” she added.

The training course – which will be conducted by Care Advisors Recruitment Enterprise (Care) and facilitated by a doctor, a physiotherapist and nurses – had places for 40 sign-ups but saw 70 applications.

The next round of admission for about 50 places will open in September.

Those who complete the course will receive a specialist certificate in home-based care- giving, certified by Fast, Care and the caregiver’s embassy.

Seah Seng Choon, president of non-government organisation Fast, said training maids in caregiving would benefit both the worker and employer.

“To be able to age gracefully in the comfort of one’s home is the hope of many Singaporeans… and it will enhance the well-being of (the) elderly at home when the caregiver is well-trained,” he said yesterday at the launch at Fast’s clubhouse in Raeburn Park.

“Based on feedback we have received, many domestic helpers would also like to be better skilled in taking care of the elderly.”

Fast will also start holding monthly mediation service from next month for maids and employers to work out differences with the help of mediators at the Fast clubhouse.

Fast receives an average of 166 calls a month, with about two in 10 being about employment issues such as termination or disputes over agency fees.

Nearly half are about emotional support and adjustment difficulties. Appointments for mediation can be made by calling 6509-1535.

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Ever since Jover Chew and his four associates were jailed in November last year for cheating customers at their Sim Lim Square store Air Mobile, the police have not seen any more cheating cases at that mall, Lucky Plaza or People’s Park Complex.

These three commercial buildings were former hot spots for complaints of unfair business practices.

Led by Superintendent Aileen Yap, 38, a team of 22 investigating officers from the Central Division looked into over 100 police reports filed against Air Mobile in 2014.

For their role in effectively curtailing the number of cheating cases in Singapore, Supt Yap’s team was commended by the Commissioner of Police Hoong Wee Teck at a ceremony yesterday.

In total, 154 individuals and 211 teams were presented with commendations. There were also four special commendations given out for rejecting bribes.

Supt Yap said Chew had been under police investigation even before he became known for trying to give one customer more than $1,000 in coins as a refund, and later for making another customer beg for a refund on bended knee.

She had formed the team in September 2014, before Chew became a household name. After two months of gathering evidence, the team raided Air Mobile in November that year, at about the time he began to gain infamy online.

“The whole investigation process was very long-drawn but we are happy that, at the end of the day, justice was served,” she said.

Some of the biggest challenges came from victims who were reluctant or unable to help with investigations.

Chew targeted foreign nationals, many of whom earned low wages and had a poor command of English. Supt Yap’s team found that many of those who made the complaints had left Singapore, and it was hard to get in touch with them.

Others were unconvinced that they would get any compensation and wanted to drop the case.

“This case was unprecedented. Even when we went to trial to prosecute Jover Chew, we felt it was 50-50 on whether we could convict him,” said Supt Yap.

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Nine in every 10 teenage boys here have watched or read sexually explicit materials within the past year, a survey has found, with some first exposed to it from as early as lower primary and below.

For the girls, 8 per cent admitted to viewing pornography last year, be it intentional or accidental.

Conducted by Touch Cyber Wellness, the main agency that gives online safety talks in schools here, the survey polled 921 students aged 13 to 15 to examine teenage exposure to pornography.

It did the first such survey on teenage exposure to pornography two years ago and followed up with a second one earlier this year.

Compared with the first survey, there is an increase of 6 to 14 per cent of the boys and girls who have been exposed to pornography.

The main mode of accessing such materials is via personal mobile devices.

Of those who viewed such content, 88 per cent of boys and 73 per cent of girls saw it on their smartphones or tablets. This is an increase of 6 to 8 per cent compared with the 2014 survey.

The earliest age of exposure is upper primary and below for 52 per cent of the boys who accessed such material, and 28 per cent for the girls.

Experts say the findings are worrying as such content can affect children’s studies, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and their attitudes and behaviour towards love and sex.

If addiction sets in, it may lead to various forms of dysfunction and sexual crimes.

Touch Cyber Wellness manager Chong Ee Jay called the figures “expectedly alarming”.

“With kids owning or have access to mobile devices at a younger age, the risk of such exposures is greatly magnified.”

Delane Lim, chief executive of Agape Group Holdings which conducts talks and youth camps in schools, agrees.

“Exposure to pornography is a given. But we should start getting worried about the average age of kids being exposed to it and the percentage of youths addicted to pornography,” he added.

Experts say it is time for parents to monitor and talk to their children about such issues as the exposure rate can be expected to go only north, given that Singapore has one of the highest rates of mobile-phone usage.

When asked how they were first exposed to porno- graphy, 54 per cent of the boys said they intentionally searched for it on the Internet while 43 per cent of the girls stumbled upon it while surfing online.

While parents can install Web filters on their child’s mobile phones, this may work only for younger kids.

Mr Lim said a longer-term solution is to equip parents with the right communication skills to talk about such issues.

“But they may not have the moral authority to do so as, ironically, some parents are watching pornography themselves and the children know it,” he added.

K. Rosli, 42, mother of a girl aged 10 and a three-year-old son, checks the history of Internet sites and YouTube videos on her daughter’s phone daily.

Said the executive: “She hands over her phone willingly every day because we have a curfew for phone use.

“When the boy grows up, I will get dad to handle him.”

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