Tunis, July 24, 2019, SPA -- The 13th Arab Conference of heads of Security Information departments, started today in Tunis, with the participation of representatives from the ministries of interior of the Arab States, the Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council and Naif Arab University for Security Sciences. The conference's President Major General Mansour bin Sultan Al-Turki, who is the head of the Saudi Arabia's delegation to the meeting, stressed the security challenges facing the security media in the performance of its media functions. The spread of social media platforms has increased the media coverage of local issues and the participation of non-national elements to deal with them socially to escalate the negative reactions towards them and exploit some of them to incite the local public opinion and create a state of frustration leading to extremism and terrorism, he said. He pointed out that the dependence of individuals on the means of social media in access to information has led to the rapid spread of rumors and difficulty to address them, stressing that the Internet and social networking platforms provided many windows for extremist organizations and organized crime networks to reach children and adolescents and influence them, attract them and use them to serve their terrorist and criminal objectives. -- SPA 18:58 LOCAL TIME 15:58 GMT 0024 www.spa.gov.sa/w1144051